Reactions of Chilean and US children to marital discord

Abstract

Understanding of the universality of relations between marital discord and children is limited by gaps in cross-cultural study. In an extension of study of this question to a Latin American culture, the impact of marital discord was examined in 7–9 and 11–13-year-olds from Chilean (N = 36) and US (N = 36) families. Parents completed marital discord and child adjustment measures and children responded to analogue presentations of marital discord. For both groups, marital discord was related to children’s adjustment and children’s reactions to marital discord varied significantly as a function of conflict resolution. At the same time, culture moderated the amplitude of some relations, with the pattern of findings suggesting that Chilean children were more sensitive to marital discord than US children. Discussion considers the role of cultural context as a factor in the effects of marital discord on children.

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