The Spillover of Parenting Stress Onto Marital Qualities and Communication During Parenting Disagreements: A Relational Turbulence Theory Perspective

ABSTRACT

This study engages relational turbulence theory to examine relationship functioning and communication among parents of teenagers. The hypotheses assessed associations between relational uncertainty and disrupted interdependence, and communication during conflict episodes related to childrearing, and considered parenting stress and coparenting alliance as antecedents of relationship parameters. Married, parents of teen children (n = 349) reported their relationship experiences, parenting stress, and coparenting alliance. Then, parents recalled a recent disagreement with their spouse related to their teen and reported their communication tactics during the conversation. The results suggested that parenting stress was positively associated with relational uncertainty and interference from a partner, which in turn, predicted more negative conflict communication. Coparenting alliance was negatively associated with relational uncertainty and partner interference, and positively associated with facilitation from a partner. Parenting stress attenuated the relationship between coparenting alliance and relationship parameters. Implications for relational turbulence theory, family scholars, and parents of teens are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2023.2264264

Notes

1. RTT indicates that biased cognitive appraisals mediate the association between relational uncertainty and communication in specific episodes, and heightened emotions serve as the link between characteristics of interdependence and communication. The association between relationship parameters, cognitions, and emotions is well–established in RTT research (e.g., Goodboy et al., 2022, 2023; Tian & Solomon, 2023). Thus, following previous research (e.g., Worley & Shelton, 2020), we reduced the size of our model by including the communicative outcomes (with an understood mediator) of uncertainty and interdependence because they (a) represent the part of the theory focused on communication (rather than cognitive variables) and (b) have greater potential for practical application and guidance for parents.

2. Values add up to greater than 100% because participants were allowed to “check all that apply”

3. These data were gathered as part of a larger project. A second study was conducted using the same survey. No variables overlapped between the two studies.

4. RTT suggests that relationship uncertainty is informed by both self and partner uncertainty but captures experiences of relational uncertainty at a higher level of abstraction (Brisini et al., 2023; Solomon et al., 2016). In addition, following RTT, empirical research suggests that self and partner uncertainty influence cognitions and communication through their association with relationship uncertainty (Goodboy et al., 2020). Given Solomon and Brisini (2017)’s evidence against creating a single, composite relational uncertainty variable, relational uncertainty was represented by relationship uncertainty for the path analysis.