Linking marital and child attributions to family processes and parent–child relationships.

The contribution of marital attributions to parenting and parent-child interaction was examined, along with the contribution of children's attributions for negative parental behavior to ineffective parent-child communication. Data from 170 children 10 to 12 years old (84 girls, 86 boys) were used to test a model of hypothesized links among conflict-promoting marital attributions, negative marital context, parenting practices, children's attributions for parent behavior, and ineffective parent-child communication. Husbands' and wives' marital attributions were related to the marital context, which was related to ineffective parent-child communication. Husbands' and wives' conflict-promoting marital attributions also were related to parenting practices, which were related to children's attributions for negative parental behavior. Children's attributions also accounted for unique variance in ineffective parent-child communication.