Interparental Conflict as Intrusive Family Process

SUMMARY A rapidly growing body of research indicates that marital conflict, often referred to as interparental conflict (IPC), 'spills over' into family processes, and thus has negative impact on child development. With increasing clarity, this research documents the spillover phenomenon as intrusive to children both in terms of discrete and broad indices of child well-being, and also through IPC's links to ineffective and intrusive parenting. In addition, new research suggests that covert conflict styles are particularly intrusive-and potentially coercive-to children due to IPC's linkages with parental psychological control. Taken together, these findings underscore the need for integrative interventions that address the components of the spillover model; that is, interventions that help parents deal well with conflict and that support good parenting, and interventions that assist children in coping with the difficulties of IPC.