PARENTING STRESS SPILLOVER AND MARITAL SATISFACTION: FACTORS IN INTERVENTION
16 page, double-spaced, literature review, minimum 25 peer-reviewed citations (see attached word doc)
Rough Outline
Introduction:
Marital satisfaction plays an important role not only in the marital relationship (Boland and Follingstad, 1987), but also has a cascading impact on an individual’s physical and psychological health (Kerestes et al., 2012), family functioning and quality of parenting (Erel and Burman, 1995). Given the radiating effects of marital satisfaction on these domains, it is essential to identify factors that influence marital satisfaction and ways to enhance it in the clinical setting. Family systems theory maintains that families are comprised of subsystems that interact in a bidirectional nature (Erel and Burman, 1995). Therefore, both positive and negative feelings experienced in the co-parenting relationship or parent-child relationship would influence the marital relationship. De Luccie (1995) describes this as the “spillover” effect. There is a robust body of literature investigating the impact that the marital relationship has on parenting (Troxel and Matthews, 2004), yet comparatively little is known about the influence of the parent-child relationship on marital quality.
Body:
1) Compare ‘‘spillover’’ effect (De Luccie 1995) to ‘‘compensatory’’ hypothesis (Engfer 1988): Provide support and shortcoming for each
2) Identify factors that influence the parenting and marital subsystem dynamics
- Mehall et al. (2009) found a positive relationship between father involvement and marital satisfaction in early infancy.
- Positive, supportive marital dyads were positively related to co-parental cooperation and negatively related to co-parental triangulation and co-parental conflict (Kolak and Volling, 2007).
- Zemp et al. (2017) found that high levels of child-related stress were negatively associated with marital satisfaction, which was partially mediated by couple communication.
3) Impact on therapeutic interventions (specific psychotherapy techniques and approaches?).
Summary
Limitations
Clinical Implications
Future Directions
Citations
Boland, J. P., & Follingstad, D. R. (1987). The relationship between communication and marital satisfaction: A review. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 13(4), 286–313.
De Luccie, M. F. (1995). Mothers as Gatekeepers: A Model of Maternal Mediators of Father
Involvement. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 156(1), 115–131.
Engfer, A. (1988). The interrelatedness of marriage and the motherchild relationship. In R. A. Hinde & J.
- Hinde (Eds.), Relationships within families: Mutual influences (pp. 104–118). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Erel, O., & Burman, B. (1995). Interrelatedness of marital relations and parent-child relations: A meta-
analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 118(1), 108-132.
Keresteš, G., Brković, I., & Jagodić, G. K. (2012). Predictors of psychological well-being of adolescents’
parents. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(6), 1073-1089.
Kolak, A. M., & Volling, B. L. (2007). Parental Expressiveness as a Moderator of Coparenting and Marital
Relationship Quality. Family Relations, 56(5), 467-478.
Mehall, K. G., Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., & Gaertner, B. M. (2009). Examining the Relations of Infant
Temperament and Couples Marital Satisfaction to Mother and Father Involvement: A
Longitudinal Study. Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as
Fathers, 7(1), 23-48.
Troxel, W. M., & Matthews, K. A. (2004). What Are the Costs of Marital Conflict and Dissolution to
Children’s Physical Health? Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7(1), 29-57.
Zemp, M., Nussbeck, F. W., Cummings, E. M., & Bodenmann, G. (2017). The spillover of child‐related
stress into parents’ relationship mediated by couple communication. Family Relations: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 66(2), 317–330.