Giallo Rebecca, Seymour Monique, Fogarty Alison, Feinberg Mark, Christensen Daniel, Gartland Deirdre, Wood Catherine, Brown Stephanie J, Cooklin Amanda
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, Australia.
Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022 Apr;31(4):625-635. doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01700-7. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Interparental conflict (IPC) has the potential to adversely affect children's social, emotional, and behavioural functioning. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between both the severity and chronicity of IPC across early and middle childhood and children's emotional-behavioural functioning at 10-11 years. Specifically, we aimed to: (1) identify distinct trajectories of IPC spanning 10-11 years since birth of the study child as reported by mothers, and (2) examine the emotional-behavioural functioning of children exposed to the identified IPC trajectories. Drawing from a nationally representative longitudinal study of Australian families (N = 4875), four distinct trajectories of IPC were identified: (1) consistently low exposure to IPC over time, (2) persistently elevated exposure to IPC, (3) increasing IPC exposure over time, and (4) decreasing IPC exposure over time. Children exposed to trajectories with high IPC at any point during the study period were reported by their mothers to be experiencing more emotional-behavioural difficulties than children exposed to low IPC over time. Based on teacher report, there were no differences in emotional-behavioural functioning of children exposed to the different patterns of IPC. Our findings reinforce that high parental conflict at any point in a child's life is a form of adversity that can have adverse consequences for their mental health, and that early interventions for parents and caregivers experiencing high IPC are critical.
父母间冲突（IPC）有可能对儿童的社交、情感和行为功能产生不利影响。本研究的总体目标是调查儿童从幼儿期到童年中期IPC的严重程度和持续性与10至11岁儿童的情绪行为功能之间的关系。具体而言，我们旨在：（1）确定母亲报告的自研究儿童出生起10至11年间IPC的不同轨迹，以及（2）研究暴露于已确定的IPC轨迹下的儿童的情绪行为功能。基于一项对澳大利亚家庭具有全国代表性的纵向研究（N = 4875），确定了IPC的四种不同轨迹：（1）随着时间推移，IPC暴露始终较低；（2）IPC暴露持续升高；（3）随着时间推移，IPC暴露增加；（4）随着时间推移，IPC暴露减少。母亲报告称，在研究期间任何时候暴露于高IPC轨迹的儿童比长期暴露于低IPC的儿童经历更多的情绪行为困难。根据教师报告，暴露于不同IPC模式的儿童在情绪行为功能方面没有差异。我们的研究结果强化了这样的观点，即儿童生活中任何时候的高父母冲突都是一种逆境形式，可能对其心理健康产生不利影响，并且对经历高IPC的父母和照顾者进行早期干预至关重要。
