親職行為在父母衝突與兒童適應問題之間的關係探討

Associations among Interparental Conflict, Parenting Behavior, and Children's Adjustment

本研究藉由兩年的跨時間設計，探討父母衝突、親職行為和兒童適應問題之間的關係，試圖驗證親職行為的角色是中介模式、調節模式，或獨立預測模式。本研究同時測量正向親職行為、負向親職行為及親子關係，並探討這些親職行為對預測不同性別兒童、不同適應問題之差異，以作為臨床介入之參考。研究對象為539名台北地區國小五年級兒童及280位家長，以問卷法評量兒童所知覺到的父母衝突、六項親職行為（溫暖、參與、拒絕、嚴厲管教、父子衝突、母子衝突），及兒童內外化問題。結果發現，父母衝突透過父母的拒絕、嚴厲管教、父子（父女）衝突、母子（母女）衝突而部分中介男女童的內化問題，而拒絕、父女衝突、母女衝突亦能完全中介女童外化問題，支持親職行為在父母衝突下的中介角色；但負向親職行為只能中介部分男女童內化問題，父母衝突及拒絕仍能直接預測男女童內化問題，而父女衝突則能獨立預測女童外化問題，亦支持親職行為與父母衝突之獨立預測模式，顯示親職行為與父母衝突對兒童適應問題各有其重要性。臨床工作者應協助處於婚姻衝突之父母學習建設性的衝突處理策略並管控自我情緒，避免將負向情緒擴散至子女，減少子女除了因父母衝突所受到的直接影響外，再受到不當教養之間接影響。

The relationship between interparental conflict, parenting behavior and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 539 fifth graders and 280 parents using a 2-wave research design. The parenting behaviors, including warmth, involvement, rejection, harsh discipline, father-child conflict, and mother-child conflict, were tested as potential mediators, moderators or independent predictors. The results indicated that negative parenting behaviors such as rejection, harsh discipline, father-child conflict, and mother-child conflict partially mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and children's internalizing problems. Furthermore, parental rejection, father-daughter conflict and mother-daughter conflict fully mediated the impact of interparental conflict on girls' externalizing problems. The parenting-as-mediator model was supported. In addition, both interparental conflict and parental rejection were associated with children's internalizing problems, and each predicted the internalizing problems independently. While, father-daughter conflict was related to girls' externalizing problems directly. Thus, the interparental conflict and parenting behavior as independent predictor model was also supported. These findings suggest the unique importance of interparental relationship and parenting behavior. For clinicians, interventions that teach parents to handle their marital conflict constructively and to parent their children positively in the context of marital conflict may be needed. Efforts to reduce interparental conflict and its spillover effects on compromised parenting are important for reducing children's adjustment problems.