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Biomedical subjects

R E Emery

Publications and source records attributed to R E Emery.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Family members as third parties in dyadic family conflict: strategies, alliances, and outcomes.

Systems theorists have argued that triads rather than dyads need to be considered as a basic interaction unit, particularly in regard to episodes of conflict. While theoretically appealing, the description of the strategies used and alliances formed when third parties intervene in dyadic conflict presents a number of conceptual and empirical challenges. In the present report, a reliable system for coding such third-party participation in verbal conflicts is described and is used to analyze routine family conflicts that were observed during dinner. A number of specific findings of interest are reported, including that girls were more likely than boys to intervene in all family disputes except marital conflicts, that mothers and fathers rarely sided against each other when intervening as third parties, and that the third-party strategies most commonly used corresponded with family roles: fathers used authority strategies, mothers used mediational tactics, and children used distraction. Of greater importance, however, are the general findings that document the influence of third parties on dyadic conflict. Additional family members frequently joined dyadic family conflicts, they were about equally likely to attempt to end or to continue the conflict, they formed alliances about half of the time, and their intervention strategies were related to the outcome of the conflict as well as its patterning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Limited mental capacities and perceived control in attribution of responsibility.

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of a child's psychological disturbance on adults' judgements of causation, blame and punishment for action outcomes portrayed across Heider's levels. The effect of these levels on perceived control and the utility of perceived control in predicting judgements were also investigated. It was found that: (a) the psychological status of the child affected responses for a subset of Heider's levels but did not alter the pattern of responses across levels; and (b) responses were not affected by the existence of a psychological disorder per se but instead appeared to reflect inferences regarding the capacities influenced by the disorder. In addition, perceived control (c) increased across Heider's levels and (d) was more useful than previously investigated subjective probabilities in accounting for variance in perceived cause, blame and punishment. The probability of the act in the situation portrayed also accounted for a unique portion of the variance in the judgements made. The robustness of Heider's levels and a quantitative approach to his criteria are discussed. Finally, suggestions regarding the assessment of capacities necessary for being held accountable for one's actions are outlined.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1987

Parental conflict and other correlates of the adjustment of school-age children whose parents have separated.

In this study, several factors related to psychological adjustment of school-age children were examined in a sample of 40 lower-class families in which the parents were separated. It was hypothesized that parental conflict and other indices of family adversity, including maternal depression, income, and the length of time past since parental separation, would be important predictors of children's behavioral adjustment. Parental acrimony was found to be a significant correlate of children's behavioral problems, even when other family variables were taken into account. In addition, independent and additive effects on children's functioning were found for parental discord and maternal depression, with some support found for an additional variable, family income. In contrast to some prior investigations, the length of time since parental separation was unrelated to children's functioning. Results are discussed in terms of Rutter's cumulative stress hypothesis and previous research on parental discord.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Marital discord and child behavior problems in a nonclinic sample.

Mothers' evaluations of their marital relationship and of their children's behavior at home and teachers' ratings of the children's behavior in school were obtained using well-established measures. While an association was found between ratings of marital discord and children's problematic behavior, the relation was a fairly weak one. The present findings are discussed in comparison to the results of other research that has relied upon clinic samples and nonindependent ratings in examining the relation between marital and child problems. In general, it appears that different methodological procedures lead to quite different conclusions about the strength of the association between interparental conflict and child behavior problems.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Children's perceptions of marital discord and behavior problems of boys and girls.

Children's feelings of nonacceptance and their perceptions of their parents' marital discord were related to parental measures of marital satisfaction and behavior problems in the children. In a sample of 50 clinic children, it was found that (1) marital discord, as predicted, was most strongly related to conduct problems in boys, (2) boys and girls perceived parental marital discord with equal and moderate accuracy, and (3) children's feelings of nonacceptance were not significantly related to ratings of marital discord. These findings are discussed as they relate to etiological explanations of the impact of marital discord on children.

Adaptation, Psychological↗