Children's perceptions of marital conflict and their self-esteem, peer relationships, and social competence

The relationship between marital conflict and children's adjustment has been long established in the scientific literature. In the current study, the relationship between children's perceptions of interparental conflict and aspects of their social development—specifically, peer relations, self-esteem, and social competence was assessed.; Sixty-seven child/parent dyads participated in the study. The children were between the ages of 8–11 and the child's biological parents were married at the time of the study. The predictor variables were measured with the Conflict Properties, Threat, and Self-Blame scales of the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC Scale). The seven individual scales of the CPIC Scale were utilized as well, for exploratory purposes. Children's social adjustment was assessed with the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC) and the Peer Relationships Questionnaire (PRQ). Correlational and multiple regression analyses were utilized to explore relationships and predictive strengths of variables.; Low to moderate correlational coefficients indicated that the Conflict Properties, Threat, and Self-Blame Subscales of the CPIC Scale were significantly associated with self-esteem. Specifically, the child's attribution of the cause of marital conflict to him or herself explained the most variance in self-esteem. Multiple regression analysis identified Self-Blame as an important variable in predicting self-esteem. Other results indicated that Threat and Self-Blame Subscales were significantly related to social competence, with conflict intensity explaining the highest amount of variance. None of the variables intended to measure peer relations was found to be related to marital conflict. However, low correlations were obtained for a leadership aspect of peer relations, assessed by the parent, and conflict frequency, ability to cope with conflict, and child's self-blame for conflict. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research were discussed.