The relationship between marital behavior, parenting behavior, and childhood aggression and peer-rejection: A multimethod evaluation

The relationship between marital behavior, parenting behavior, and childhood aggression and peer-rejection was investigated. Marital behavior was determined by Marital Adjustment Test scores (Locke-Wallace, 1951) and coded marital behaviors (Cowan & Cowan's Co-Parenting Coding System, 1992). Parenting behavior was determined by coded parent-child interactions which were analyzed using The System for Coding Interactions and Family Functioning (Lindahl, & Malik, 1996) and Cowan and Cowan's Co-Parenting Style Coding System (Cowan & Cowan, 1992). Childhood aggression was determined by children's scores on the externalizing scale of the Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach, 1991) and coded negative behavior, which was analyzed using The System for Coding Interactions and Family Functioning (Lindahl & Malik, 1996). The results indicated that child peer status (aggressive-rejected or nonaggressive-accepted) was the strongest predictor for child conduct problems, over and above child gender, marital, and parenting functioning. Significant correlations were also found between negative parenting behavior and child conduct problems on both teacher report and observational measures. Marital behavior was not found to be a significant predictor for parenting behavior or childhood conduct problems.