Variability in Adjustment of Children of Battered Women: The Role of Child Appraisals of Interparent Conflict

The present study evaluates relations between children's appraisals of interparent conflict and child adjustment problems in families characterized by extreme interparent violence. Participants were 154 children (age 8–12) and their mothers. Children completed measures of their appraisals of interparent conflict (self-blame, threat, fear of abandonment) and mothers and children completed indices of child adjustment. Our results indicate that child self-blaming for interparent conflict correlates positively with mothers' reports of externalizing child problems. Self-blame, threat, and fear of abandonment appraisals each correlate positively with child self-reports of anxiety/depression. In addition, child age moderates relations between each of the measured child appraisals and mothers' reports of child adjustment problems, with the appraisals being more positively related to problems of older children.