Day-to-day lagged associations between destructive parent–child conflict and negative marital interactions

Bidirectional day-to-day time-lagged tests of spillover processes between the marital and parenting subsystems are rare. The current study examines stability and spillover in daily negative marital behaviors and destructive parent–child conflict among mothers and fathers. We also tested for spillover moderation by coparenting alliance, as the likelihood of spillover across these family domains has been shown to vary between families. Participants included 143 families with a 5- to 8-year-old child. Parents reported daily on conflict with their child and marital interactions for 1 week. A dynamic structural equation model revealed significant stability in destructive father–child conflict, marginal stability in mothers’ negative marital behaviors, and spillover from fathers’ previous-day negative marital behaviors to subsequent destructive father–child conflict, particularly when coparenting alliance was low.