PROCESS

Understanding Marital Conflict 7 Years Later From

Prenatal Representations of Marriage
MELISSA CURRAN, PH.D. n
BRIAN OGOLSKY, PH.D.w
NANCY HAZEN, PH.D.z
LESLIE BOSCH, M.S. n
To read this article in Spanish, please see this articles Supporting Information on Wiley Online
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We examine how representations of marriage, assessed prenatally, predict different

types of marital conflict (cooperation, avoidance/capitulation, stonewalling, and child
involvement in parental conflict) at 7 years postpartum (N 132 individuals). We assessed representations of marriage prenatally by interviewing spouses about their own
parents marriage, and then rated the content and insightfulness of their memories.
Results show that marital representations characterized by higher insight predict higher
cooperation and lower child involvement in parental conflict, whereas content of marital
representations was not a significant predictor of marital conflict. Further, individuals
who remember negative memories from their parents marriage with high insight were
lowest on child involvement in parental conflict, whereas those who remember negative
memories with low insight were highest on child involvement in parental conflict. Finally, women who remember negative content with high insight report the highest cooperation, whereas women who remember negative content with low insight report the
lowest cooperation. For men, however, marital representations were less effective in predicting later cooperation. We conclude that marital representations, even when assessed
prenatally, influence certain types of marital conflict 7 years later. Using such findings,
therapists could help spouses gain insight into how the memories of their parents marriage relate to the use of specific conflict strategies in their marriage.
Keywords: Marital Conflict; Representations of Marriage; Early Family Relationships; Marriage
Fam Proc 50:221234, 2011

n
Family Studies and Human Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
wHuman and Community Development, University of Illinois
zHuman Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Melissa Curran, Family Studies
and Human Development, University of Arizona, McClelland Park, 650 North Park Avenue, PO
Box 210078, Tucson, AZ 85721. E-mail: macurran@email.arizona.edu
221

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INTRODUCTION
Conflict occurs in virtually all relationships. Marital conflict is important to study
given its associations with various problems, including depression, chronic illness, and
poor parenting (Fincham & Beach, 1999). Despite the pervasiveness of marital
conflict, however, the conflict strategies individuals use vary in effectiveness and the
reasons behind such variations are not well understood. In the current study, we
propose that the representations of marriage that individuals bring with them based
on their own parents marriage will predict current marital conflict. We examine how
four commonly studied conflict strategiesFcooperation, avoidance/capitulation,
stonewalling, and child involvement in parental conflict (Kerig, 1996)Fare forecast
by spouses representations of marriage, defined as the content and insightfulness of
individuals memories of their own parents marriage.

MARITAL CONFLICT
The way couples interact and handle interpersonal conflicts, or the behaviors and
words couples exchange when they have disagreements with one another, is of central
importance in the success or failure of marriage (Fincham & Beach, 1999). Distressed
couples report more destructive conflict strategies and negative outcomes than nondistressed couples (Christensen & Schenk, 1991), and engagement in destructive conflict
resolution behaviors increases the odds of divorce (Orbuch, Veroff, Hassan, & Horrocks,
2002). The destructive conflict tactics that we discuss here are stonewalling, avoiding
conflict or capitulating to the partner, and involving children in conflict (Kerig, 1996).
Stonewalling represents a passive-aggressive withdrawal from active conflict (e.g.,
sulking and giving the partner the silent treatment), whereas avoiding conflict or
capitulating to the partner are passive strategies that minimize confrontation and
maintain harmony at all costs. Child involvement in parental conflict is direct or indirect involvement of the child in the parents conflict (e.g., arguing in front of the
child). These three strategies are relatively ineffective because they do not allow the
underlying source of conflict to be resolved (Kerig, 1996). In contrast, cooperation is an
effective conflict strategy that involves an attempt to meet halfway to assure that
the needs of both individuals are met and to mitigate the negative effects of conflict
(Kerig, 1996). These four conflict strategies are only moderately associated with one
another; thus, identifying the unique predictors of each strategy should provide useful
information for therapeutic couple intervention.

REPRESENTATIONS OF MARRIAGE: CONTENTAND INSIGHT

Spouses learn about marriage based on observation of their own parents marriage. Both
positive and negative aspects of the parental marriage are transmitted across generations.
Husbands who recall that their parents got along well as spouses report less decline in
marital quality 9 months postpartum (Belsky & Isabella, 1985). In contrast, adults who
recall negative qualities in the parents relationship report more negative changes in their
own marriage 1 year postpartum (Perren, Von Wyl, Bu
rgin, Simoni, & Von Klitzing, 2005).
Further, adults with divorced parents have an elevated risk of lower relationship quality, or
of their own marriage ending in divorce, given a relatively weak commitment to the idea of
lifelong marriage (Amato & DeBoer, 2001; Cui & Fincham, 2010).
In addition to examining the content of memories from the parents marriage, as is
common to the studies above, attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973, 1980) and
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research (Curran, Hazen, Jacobvitz, & Feldman, 2005; Paley, Cox, Burchinal, &
Payne, 1999) stress the importance of understanding how individuals discuss memories of early parentchild experiences. The extent to which individuals can provide a
coherent, rich, and open account of past experiences is an important component of
how they represent these experiences. Adults who discuss their childhood relationships with their parents in coherent, rich, and open ways, rather than with rumination (focusing repetitively on distress without taking corrective actions; NolenHoeksema, 1998) or defensiveness (idealization or blocking of memories) are judged to
have a secure state of mind regarding attachment. These adults are more likely than
adults with insecure representations to provide sensitive care and develop secure
relationships with their own children (van IJzendoorn, 1995), even if they report
negative memories of their childhood experiences with their own parents.
The ability to discuss childhood relationships in a coherent, rich, and open way is a
key indicator of a secure representation of attachment in measurements of representations of parentchild relationships in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI;
George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996). Just as infantcaregiver interaction patterns can be
internalized as representations of attachment in the AAI, it is likely that childrens
observations of the parents marriage may be internalized as mental representations
of marital relationships. Individuals memories of their parents marriage are likely to
form the basis of their general representations of marriage because typically this is the
first marital relationship they experience, and the one they have observed for the
longest period of time. Also, just as adults who are able to insightfully access and
reinterpret childhood memories are able to break the cycle of poor parenting, so too
might adults who can insightfully access and interpret childhood memories of the
parental marriage be able to break the cycle of disharmonious marital interactions.
In our research on marital representations (Curran, Hazen, Jacobvitz, & Sasaki, 2006;
Curran, Hazen, & Mann, 2009), we have referred to individuals ability to openly access
memories of the parental marriage as insight, characterized by the allowance of individuals to analyze their parents marriage and decide what they have learned from it, and not
repeat the same mistakes in their own marriage. Individuals with high insight provide rich
and coherent episodic examples that support the content they present, and make connections between their parents marriage and their own, for example:
As far as I could tell they [the parents] didnt talk it out and share their own feelings. They
just kind of went along day by day. I think as I got older, they drifted apart because they
didnt talk about what was going on and how they were feeling and how they were changing
and how they felt about their lives. So thats, it kind of sensitized me to make sure that I do,
even though I dont want to, to stop and talk about how Im feeling and where Im going and
how are you feeling and where are you going and how are we, is there weaknesses that have
developed in our relationship that we havent noticed because weve been so busy, those kind
of things. We try to go away and literally get away from everything as a couple, three times a
year . . . just by ourselves . . ., kind of regroup ourselves, get in touch with one another. . . .

In contrast, individuals with low insight respond in ways such as:

Well, we havent been married that long and I dont . . . I dont see from the times . . .
I would, no, because I never equate the two together really. As growing up as a little kid
their relationship you are now . . . no. No relationship. I cant see how they equate to each
other.

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Memories recalled by the individual are still defined subjectively by the individual.
Although we cannot know whether the contents of memories reported are accurate,
we can assess the extent to which these memories are reported in a coherent, rich,
and open fashion. When we discuss insight, we define it as the individuals ability to
think and talk about their parents marriage in a coherent, rich, and open way, rather
than whether an individual can talk insightfully with their spouse, or whether couples
have the ability to talk to one another about their insights. Previous research indicates
that richness and credibility of recall, one component of insight, predicts higher levels
of maintenance for pregnant couples (Curran et al., 2005), and that insight is associated with higher dyadic emotional attunement (i.e., the extent to which spouses
respond and listen to each other) prenatally and at 2 years postpartum in marital
dyads during couple interactions (Curran et al., 2006).
Further, insight is effective in therapy, such that spouses using insight-oriented
therapy had significantly lower divorce rates (3%) than those in behavioral therapy
(38%; Snyder, Wills, & Grady-Fletcher, 1991). Insight-oriented therapy seems
to shed light on outdated representations that individuals hold of unexamined
early experiences. Consequently, insight-oriented therapists work with clients to
distinguish these unexamined representations and to recognize how these
representations affect their current relationships (Hahlweg, Schindler, Revenstorf, &
Brengelmann, 1984). Given these findings, we hypothesize that spouses higher
insight should predict greater reports of cooperation and lower reports of less effective
conflict strategies (i.e., avoidance, stonewalling, and child involvement in parental
conflict) at 7 years postpartum (H1).
Based on our previous research, we also expect that content of memories about
marriage will predict spouses later conflict strategies only when considered in
combination with insight. Individuals with marital representations of negative content with low insight demonstrated both lower spousal emotional attunement
(e.g., antagonism, defensiveness, emotional distance) at 2 years postpartum (Curran
et al., 2006) and critical and undermining coparenting toward the spouse during a
triadic family interaction at 2 years postpartum given high expectations about
parenthood (Curran et al., 2009). It seems that individuals who recalled negative
marital content with low insight had inadequate models for how to be supportive
partners and parents, and lacked the insight to correct these models when they
experience conflict in their own marriage. In contrast, individuals who recalled negative marital content with high insight showed opposite patterns, including supportive and responsive spousal emotional attunement (Curran et al., 2006) and a trend
toward more supportive parenting in triadic family interactions (Curran et al., 2009).
These latter individuals seem likely to expect marital difficulties, but may have consciously analyzed their own parents marriage to learn from it and not repeat the same
mistakes. Thus, we hypothesize that marital representations of negative content and
low insight should predict less effective conflict strategies, whereas marital representations of negative content and high insight should predict more effective conflict
strategies (H2).
We explore the role of sex with regard to the study variables (RQ1). Results
for insight are mixed, such that insight was higher for wives than husbands in
some studies (Curran et al., 2005, 2006) but not in another (Curran et al., 2009). Sex
differences in marital conflict are more patterned, such that husbands avoid or capitulate to their spouse more than women (Christensen & Heavey, 1990; Kerig, 1996),
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whereas wives are higher on cooperation, stonewalling, and child involvement in

parental conflict than their husbands (Kerig, 1996).
We also controlled for depressive symptoms and family income. Given that depressive
symptoms are linked to memory bias (Barry, Naus, & Ream, 2004) and greater marital
conflict (Papp, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2007), individuals with depressive symptoms
might give impoverished accounts of marital representations and report less effective
conflict strategies. Also, lower family income has been associated with strained marital
relationships and greater marital conflict (Conger & Elder, 1994).
Finally, we note that current knowledge regarding the transmission of content
across generations and representations of marriage has focused on shorter time
spans, typically the transition to parenthood (e.g., Curran et al., 2005, 2006, 2009;
Belsky & Isabella, 1985; Perren et al., 2005). In contrast, we test how representations
of marriage, assessed prenatally, influence marital conflict 7 years later. Support for
our hypotheses would provide important documentation that representations of
marriage are important not only during proximal times such as the transition to
parenthood, but have more lasting implications in marriage.

METHOD

Participants
The original sample of 125 couples was recruited from a large Southwestern city to
participate in a longitudinal study of family relations. We recruited couples through
birthing classes, public service radio announcements, and flyers in maternity stores.
All couples had to be living together and expecting their first child. Only the 132
individuals who had data on the current study variables were selected. The final
sample consisted of 132 individuals: 61 couples in which both partners provided data
on study variables, and 10 singletons in which only one partner provided data on study
variables. Those more likely to stay in the study were older (odds ratio 1.08, po.01)
and higher on insight (odds ratio 1.15, po.05), whereas those with lower incomes of
US$0US$15,000 were more likely to drop out, w2(4) 17.29, po.01.
Median age was 30 years, and median education was a college degree (48.5%), with
others reporting up to a high school diploma (12.1%), some college or trade school (21.2%),
or a post graduate degree (18.2%). Ethnicity was mostly Caucasian (83.3%) with 8.3%
Hispanic, 2.3% African American, and 6.1% other. The median family income was
US$45,001US$60,000 a year (24.2%), with others reporting 4US$60,000 a year (28.8%),
and the rest reporting oUS$45,000 a year (47%). Most were married (96.2%), with median marital length of 2.58 year (range almost 1 month to 21 years). Couples were given a
US$50 savings bond at each phase, bimonthly newsletters, and gifts.

Procedure
At 7 years postpartum, we measured marital conflict. Prenatally, we measured
representations of the parents marriage.

Measures
Marital conflict
The conflict and problem-solving scale by Kerig (1996), administered at 7 years
postpartum, is a measure of interparental conflict sensitive to different dimensions of
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marital conflict affecting couple relationships, parenting, and child development.

We assessed four conflict strategies: cooperation, avoidance/capitulation, stonewalling, and child involvement in parental conflict, with all anchors ranging from 0 (never)
to 3 (often).
The cooperation scale consisted of 6 items including talk it out with partner,
express thoughts and feelings openly, and listen to partners point of view. The
avoidance/capitulation scale consisted of 10 items including try to smooth things
over, give in to partners viewpoint to escape argument, and leave the room.
The stalemate/stonewalling scale, hereafter referred to as stonewalling, consisted of 5
items including cry, sulk, refuse to talk, give the silent treatment, and complain, bicker without really getting anywhere. The child involvement in parental
conflict scale consisted of 7 items including argue in front of child, and involve the
children in our argument, as well as issues regarding childrearing. The latter
questions about issues regarding childrearing were rated on a 0100% scale, with
instructions to reverse code the percentages and then sum them with the other child
involvement in parental conflict items (Kerig, 1996).
Representations of marriage
The Representations of Marriage Interview, a semistructured interview lasting 30
40 minutes, was developed to assess individuals representations of marriage based on
their recollections of their parents marriage (Jacobvitz, 1992). This interview was
based, in part, on the AAI (George et al., 1996).
Prenatally, each member of the couple was interviewed separately in their home
and asked to name three adjectives about their parents marriage, and to support
these adjectives with episodic memories. All individuals were able to be coded on the
scales below. Most often, responses were about the parents marriage. Parental divorce was reported by 28.5% of individuals. For those reporting a parental divorce at
or before age 5 (35%, n 13), about half were able to describe their parents marriage
(n 7), while the others described the relationship between one parent and a stepparent (n 6). Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and rated on five 7-point
scales from 1 (low or absent) to 7 (high) using an established coding scheme (Curran &
Feldman, 2001). Three of the scales assessed quality or content of their parents
marriage: conflict, affection, and communication/companionship; and two assessed
insight of these memories: richness and connection.
Low scores on conflict reflect little or no mention of conflict in the parents marriage, or that conflict was minor and infrequent, whereas high scores reflect open,
frequent, and fairly severe conflict that was extremely problematic for the marriage.
Low scores on affection reflect statements that there was little or no affection between
the parents, whereas high scores reflect reports of frequent and spontaneous displays
of verbal affection and sentimentality, physical affection and sentimentality, or both.
Low scores on communication/companionship reflect little or no shared activities,
mutual discussions, or fun times together, whereas high scores reflect open discussions of parenting or marital issues, dates, or having fun together.
Richness scores indicate the extent to which individuals are able to provide a
consistent and detailed picture of the parents marriage with several supporting episodic examples, versus a lack of memory or idealized generalizations. High scores
reflect reports of positive or negative memories of the parents marriage, supported
with episodic examples, and a description that is detailed, consistent, and believable to
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the coder. Low scores reflect a lack of episodic examples, active contradiction of
memories, or both.
Connection scores indicate the extent to which individuals explicitly make connections between characteristics found in their parents marriage and their own
marriage. High scores indicate that the individual can articulate links (positive or
negative) between their parents marriage and their own marriage. In contrast, low
scores indicate no statement of connection, or only a vague understanding of the
commonalities between their parents and their own marriage.
Two coders rated each video and discrepancies were resolved by discussion
between coders. Raters were blind to the hypotheses, and 100% of the videos
were double-coded. Interclass correlation coefficients between coders were .95 for
conflict, .94 for affection, .94 for communication/companionship, .92 for richness,
and .89 for connection.
To create the content scale, we summed the scores for conflict (reverse-coded),
affection, and communication/companionship. To create the insight scale, we summed
the scores for richness and connection. Higher scores represent more positive content
and higher insight.
Depressive symptoms
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) was
used to measure depressive symptoms. The CES-D contains 20 items. Participants
rated their frequency of agreement with each statement on a 1 (rarely or none of the
time) to 4 (most of the time) point scale, with higher scores indicating greater depressive symptoms. This measure has high internal consistency, adequate testretest
reliability, and established validity (Radloff, 1977).
Family income
Family income from both spouses was assessed on a 1 (US$0US$15,000 a year) to 5
(US$60,000 and over a year) scale.

ANALYSIS PLAN
We tested hypotheses using SAS proc mixed to control for the nonindependence
between partners. To explore the interaction between content and insight, we centered each of the predictor variables and used these centered variables to create the
interaction (Aiken & West, 1991). Significant two-way interactions were probed such
that content was specified as the predictor variable, and insight was specified as the
moderator with two values for insight, one standard deviation above the mean, and
one standard deviation below the mean (Aiken & West, 1991). As for the number of
individuals within these graphed specifications, the sample sizes were: high content,
high insight (n 30); high content, low insight (n 36); low content, high insight
(n 41); and low content, low insight (n 25).
Models were estimated separately for each of the conflict scales. We simultaneously
entered sex, depressive symptoms, and family income as controls, as well as content
and insight, and the Content  Insight interaction. Sex was dummy coded (0 men;
1 women) and family income was dummy coded (0 less than US$30,000 a year;
1 over US$30,001 a year). To examine sex as a further influence, we created three
interactions: Sex  Content; Sex  Insight; Sex  Content  Insight.
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RESULTS

Descriptive Statistics
Means, standard deviations, and reliability estimates are in Table 1. Intercorrelations are in Table 2. All correlations were in expected directions.

Multilevel Models
Results are in Table 3. As hypothesized (H1), higher insight predicted higher cooperation and lower child involvement in parental conflict. Also as hypothesized,
content did not predict marital conflict. Instead, we found a significant interaction
between content and insight, although only for child involvement in parental conflict.
After graphing the interaction (Figure 1), and in line with H2, we found that individuals remembering negative content in the parental marriage, coupled with high
insight, reported the lowest child involvement in parental conflict. In contrast, individuals remembering negative content in the parental marriage, coupled with low
insight, reported the highest child involvement in parental conflict.
We explored sex as a further influence (RQ1). Sex  Content  Insight was significant for Cooperation (b .11, SE .05, po.05; not shown in Table 3). After
graphing this interaction (Figure 2), we found that for women with high insight, recalling more negative content predicted greater cooperation. In contrast, for women
with low insight, more negative content predicted less cooperation. For men, in general, their reported use of cooperation fell between insightful women who recalled
positive content and noninsightful women who recalled positive content.
Also, we found that men were higher on avoidance/capitulation than women,
whereas women were higher on stonewalling than men. Individuals with higher
depressive symptoms reported higher avoidance/capitulation and stonewalling
(see Table 3).
Finally, we ran three additional analyses controlling for the following factors:
education, given its associations with marital conflict and divorce (Rodrigues, Hall,
& Fincham, 2006), age at the time of parental divorce, given that those whose
parents divorced very early may have fewer memories or lower insight, and age of the
TABLE 1
Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables

Overall
Variable

Mean

Marital conflict
Cooperation
15.06
Avoidance/
16.43
capitulation
Stonewalling
5.34
Child
4.79
involvement in
parental conflict
Representations of marriage
Content
9.88
Insight
7.88

Wives

SD

Min

2.33
4.64

.71
.76

2.96
2.86

3.84
2.03

Husbands

Max

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

7
5

18
30

15.27
15.49

2.13
4.06

.69
.69

14.82
17.51

2.54
5.04

.76
.80

.66
.73

0
0

15
15

6.46
4.80

2.66
2.61

.54
.67

4.05
4.77

2.78
3.13

.68
.79

.69
.76

2
2

17.50
13.50

9.26
8.18

3.86
1.70

.73
.61

10.60
7.53

3.71
2.31

.60
.84

Note. N 132 overall; n 70 women; n 60 men.

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TABLE 2
Intercorrelations of Study Variables (N 132 Individuals)

1
F
 .29 n n
 .25 n n
 .33 n n

1.
2.
3.
4.

Cooperation
Avoidance/capitulation
Stonewalling
Child involvement in
parental conflict
5. Content
6. Insight
nn

 .12
.21 n

F
.36 n n
.26 n n

F
.49 n n

F
 .18 n

 .05
.02

.00
 .09

 .04
 .06

po.01, po.05.
n

individual, given that this was associated with attrition. None of these controls were
significant, nor did they change the results.

DISCUSSION
At 7 years postpartum, we examined how four types of marital conflict strategies
are forecast by representations of marriage. Importantly, we found that marital
representations, assessed prenatally, predict certain aspects of marital conflict between spouses 7 years later. The prenatal assessment of marital representations is a
noteworthy strength of this study because it minimizes explanations specific to parenthood or to child characteristics.
As hypothesized, we found that spouses higher insightfulness about the parents
marriage predicted more effective types of marital conflict including higher cooperation and lower child involvement in parental conflict. Also as hypothesized, content of
memories recalled from the parents marriage was not predictive of marital conflict on
TABLE 3
Results of Multilevel Models for Marital Conflict as Predicted by Representations of the Parents
Marriage (N 132)

Cooperation
B

Fixed Effects
Intercept
Control variables
Sex
Depressive
symptoms
Family income
Representations
of marriage
Content
Insight
Content  Insight
nnn

po.001,

nn

16.73

SE
nnn

0.88

Avoidance/
Capitulation
B
14.39

nnn

Stonewalling

SE

1.60

5.73

0.86
0.09

Child
Involvement
in Parental
Conflict

SE

1.05

4.01

 2.27 n n
0.13 n n

0.41
0.05

 0.36
0.05

0.34
0.05

nnn

SE
nnn

1.13

 0.27
 0.03

0.39
0.04

 0.37

0.19

 0.27

0.33

 0.10

0.23

0.15

0.26

 0.04
0.21 n
 0.02

0.06
0.10
0.03

 0.11
 0.25
0.08

0.11
0.19
0.05

 0.02
 0.11
0.05

0.06
0.12
0.03

 0.07
 0.24 n
0.07 n

0.06
0.11
0.03

po.01, npo.05.

Fam. Proc., Vol. 50, June, 2011

2.51 n n
0.25 n n

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FAMILY PROCESS

FIGURE 1. Child Involvement in Parental Conflict as a Function of Content and Insight of

Marital Representations.

its own, but only in combination with insight. At 7 years postpartum, individuals who
recalled negative memories about the parents marriage reported the highest levels of
child involvement in parental conflict when low on insight, versus the lowest levels of
child involvement in parental conflict when high on insight. We found similar patterns
in previous studies, such that recollection of negative marital content with low insight
predicted the most negative marital and parenting outcomes during the transition to
parenthood, whereas marital representations of negative content accompanied by
insight predicted the most positive outcomes (Curran et al., 2006, 2009).
Thus, the conflict tactics of individuals who remember negative content in the
parents marriage vary depending on whether they are high or low on insight, both
during the transition to parenthood and 7 years postpartum. Individuals who have
negative memories of the parental marriage and lack insight seem likely to repeat
these negative patterns at various points over time, whereas those who have higher
insight may make a conscious effort to relate their memories of marital conflict to
their current circumstances and work to avoid the problems they recall.
Women

Men

FIGURE 2. Cooperation as a Function of Content and Insight of Marital Representations and Sex.

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Child involvement in parental conflict was the only conflict tactic predicted by the
combination of content and insight. Child involvement in marital conflict includes
involving children in the parental argument, which has been found to be particularly
destructive for childrens development (Cummings & Davies, 1994). For example,
marital conflicts that involve children are likely to cause greater shame, self-blame,
and fear in children than other types of marital conflicts (Grych & Fincham, 1993).
Further, if parents involved their children in marital conflict, individuals self-reported
higher anxiety during childhood (ages 711; Kerig, 1996) and adulthood (ages 1922;
Jacobvitz & Bush, 1996). Thus, adults are likely to recall instances of marital conflict
in which they were involved because these memories may be particularly painful,
salient, or both. Therefore, individuals who experienced child involvement in parental
conflict may use defensive processes to avoid thinking about these memories and,
without insight, are more likely to repeat such behaviors with their own children. In
contrast, individuals who recall such conflicts as being painful may, with insight, make
an extra effort to avoid involving their own children in their marital conflicts.
Our findings also indicate significant sex differences both in the types of conflict
tactics preferred by husbands and wives, and in the extent to which these are predicted by marital representations. Although avoidance/capitulation and stonewalling
are conceptualized as withdrawal strategies, men reported more avoidance/capitulation, whereas women reported more stonewalling, findings which are consistent with
Kerig (1996). Whereas women may be the ones who demand in relationships, they, like
men, also withdraw during conflict (Sagrestano, Heavey, & Christensen, 2006). Men,
however, withdraw more completely from conflict than women (Sagrestano et al.,
2006), which may explain mens higher use of avoidance/capitulation in this study.
In terms of differential associations, we found that avoidance and stonewalling
were predicted only by sex and not by marital representations, whereas child involvement in parental conflict was predicted not by sex but only by marital representations. Because avoidance and stonewalling are more covert forms of managing
conflict, children may be less aware of these tactics than of tactics such as child involvement in parental conflict. Therefore, as adults, the use of avoidance/capitulation
and stonewalling may result primarily from gendered patterns of interaction between
spouses. In contrast, and as described above, both men and women seem likely to
experience their parents use of child involvement in parental conflict as painful.
Thus, use of child involvement in parental conflict may depend less on sex, and more
on the extent to which they experienced child involvement in parental conflict personally, and the extent to which they can, with insight, consciously choose to avoid
involving their own children in their marital conflicts.
Cooperation was the only conflict strategy predicted by a three-way interaction of
sex, content, and insight. The highest cooperation was reported by women who remembered negative memories with high insight, whereas the lowest cooperation was
reported by women who remembered negative memories with low insight. This pattern, however, did not hold for men. Regardless of their insight, men who recalled
negative content generally reported intermediate levels of cooperation, lower than
women who recalled negative content with high insight, but higher than those who
recalled negative content with low insight.
Due to gender role stereotypes, women may view themselves as more responsible
for ensuring marital harmony and maintenance (Dindia, 2000). If women recall
positive marital content, regardless of their level of insight, they may reenact the
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cooperative conflict tactics they observed during their own childhood from their
parents, showing moderate levels of cooperation. If women recall negative conflict and
are high on insight, however, they may be more motivated to be very cooperative
during their own marital conflicts. In contrast, if men feel less responsible for marital
harmony and maintenance than their wives, even if they are insightful, they may be
less motivated to be highly cooperative during conflicts, or may defer to or rely on their
wives to be cooperative. It is also possible that women are more attuned to their
parents marital problems and the lessons they offer about marriage. Women, but not
men, seem to experience a stronger impact of parental divorce, as evidenced by a
greater risk of divorce (Amato, 1996) and lower relationship commitment and confidence (Whitton, Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2008).
Our study contributes to the small set of studies of couples with more established
families beyond the transition to parenthood (e.g., Papp et al., 2007). Continued future research would permit the study of marital conflict for couples as they face
continued life transitions including life with teenagers, after children leave the home,
and when one or both partners retire and spouses have more time together. Moreover,
assessments of marital representations of the couples children as they enter the
teenage years and beyond would provide important information regarding how marital representations impact successive generations in terms of their own emerging and
developing romantic relationships.
Several limitations are noted. The sample was predominantly Caucasian and
middle class. In line with a review of longitudinal studies of marriage (Karney &
Bradbury, 1995), attrition in our study was higher for participants with lower family
incomes, which limits generalizability to other ethnicities and family incomes. The
vast majority of our participants were married, thus limiting our ability to generalize
to individuals in other romantic unions such as cohabitation. Further, the majority of
individuals described their parents marriage in terms of marital representations.
Future research is needed for those individuals raised by a single parent, or who are
influenced by the marriage or relationship of their grandparents, relatives, or friends.
Although we tested for participants income, depressive symptoms, current age,
education, and age at time of parental divorce, we were not able to control for verbal
intelligence. It may be that individuals who are higher in verbal intelligence are more
insightful about the parental marriage and better able to cooperate in marital conflict.
On the other hand, verbal intelligence may be a key component of insight. Future
research is needed to explore these relations. Finally, the reliability of the marital
conflict scales was variable, and in some cases marginal, particularly for the wives,
which has been found in other studies of wives as well (e.g., Kerig, 1996; Rhoades &
Stocker, 2006). Thus, lower reliability may explain the lack of significant findings for
the marital conflict scale of stonewalling in particular.
This study has a number of implications for understanding marital conflict that
could be useful for marital therapists. Given the importance of insight for changing
negative marital interaction patterns across generations, we encourage therapists to
help individuals gain insight into childhood memories of the parents marriage as a
way to improve their use of effective conflict strategies. Although we defined and assessed each partners insight as their ability to think and talk openly about how their
parents marriage may relate to their own marriage, in therapy, this could be extended
to having the couple discuss together their insights into their parents marriages and
how they relate to their own marriage.
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Given that couples conflicts commonly focus on their children (Stanley, Markman,
& Whitton, 2002), and that conflicts involving children seem particularly destructive
to children (Cummings & Davies, 1994), therapists could also help individuals gain
insight into how they felt about being involved in their parents conflicts and help
them find strategies to avoid recreating the pattern by involving their own children in
their marital conflicts. Therapists should note gendered patterns of conflict, and encourage women to attend to possible stonewalling patterns and men to become aware
that they may be trying to avoid conflict and pass off the responsibility of maintaining
marital cooperation to their wives. Most importantly, we emphasize the finding that
marital representations, even when assessed prenatally, predict the strategies couples
use when dealing with marital conflict 7 years later.
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