Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 1

Running head: EMOTIONAL SECURITY AND COGNITIVE APPRAISALS

Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals Mediate the Relationship

Between Parents’ Marital Conflict and Adjustment in Older Adolescents

Barton J. Mann and Laura A. Gilliom

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This research was supported by a grant from the University Research Council of the

University of North Carolina.

We would like to thank Jawana Ready, Anna Remen, William Sampson, and Kathy Sigda

for their able assistance in conducting this research.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Barton J. Mann,

American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, 6300 N. River Road, #500, Rosemont, IL

60018.

Phone: (847) 292-4900 E-mail: bart@aossm.org

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 2

Abstract

The present study evaluated a model of the effects of parental conflict witnessed as a child

on current psychosocial adjustment in 175 college students. This model, which integrated the

cognitive-contextual framework (Grych & Fincham, 1990) and the emotional security hypothesis

(Davies & Cummings, 1994), proposed that both cognitive appraisal of parents’ conflict and

emotional security mediate the conflict-adjustment link in late adolescence. Further, it was

proposed that cognitive appraisals are associated with emotional security. The results suggested

that appraisals and security were both important mediators in the model but that they were not

related to each other. Instead, there appear to be parallel yet separate cognitive and emotional

channels through which exposure to parental conflict as a child can have detrimental effects on

later adjustment.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 3

Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals Mediate the Relationship

Between Parents’ Marital Conflict and Adjustment in Older Adolescents

Marital conflict has proven to be an important predictor of adjustment problems in

children. This is true for a wide range of child problems including internalizing (Jacobsen, 1978;

Long, Slater, Forehand, & Fauber, 1988; Peterson & Zill, 1986) and externalizing (Christensen,

Phillips, Glasgow, & Johnson, 1983; Emery & O'Leary, 1984; Jouriles, Pfiffner, & S. O'Leary,

1988) problems; across clinic (Emery & O'Leary, 1982; Porter & O'Leary, 1980) and nonclinic

(Johnson & O'Leary, 1987; Jouriles, Murphy, & O'Leary, 1989) samples, and in intact families as

well as divorced or divorcing ones (Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1982; Long, Forehand, Fauber, &

Brody, 1987; Peterson & Zill, 1986). Mechanisms underlying the link between marital conflict

and child adjustment are not yet fully understood but may include the direct effects of exposure to

marital fighting as well as indirect effects through disruptions in parenting processes and parent-

child relationships (e.g., Mann & MacKenzie, 1996).

The Cognitive-Contextual Framework

Two promising frameworks for investigating the direct impact of conflict on children have

been proposed recently: the cognitive-contextual model (Grych & Fincham, 1990) and the

emotional security hypothesis (Davies & Cummings, 1994). In the cognitive-contextual model,

observed conflict between parents is proposed to be a stressor which elicits affective, cognitive,

and behavioral responses as the child attempts to understand and cope with the event. The three

types of cognitions described as the most important in appraising a interparental conflict episode

are assessments of threat, attributions regarding cause and blame, and perceived ability to cope

with the conflict. The final stage in the child’s response is an actual attempt to cope with the

conflict (e.g., by intervening) and/or the negative affect elicited by it.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 4

Evidence in support of the cognitive-contextual model's basic predictions is rapidly

accumulating. Studies employing a variety of creative methodologies support the

model’s hypotheses that (1) observing interparental conflict is a stressor for children (E. M.

Cummings, Iannotti, & Zahn-Waxler 1985; E. M. Cummings, Zahn-Waxler, & Radke

Yarrow, 1981; E. M. Cummings, Vogel, J. S. Cummings, & El-Sheikh, 1989; El-Sheikh & E. M.

Cummings, 1992); (2) cognitive appraisals of interparental conflict are related to affective and

coping responses (Grych et al., 1992; Grych & Fincham, 1993); and (3) stimulus characteristics

such as intensity, content, and outcome moderate the impact of marital conflict on children

(Ballard, Cooper, & Huffman, 1994; E. M. Cummings et al., 1981; E. M. Cummings et al., 1989;

E. M. Cummings, Simpson, & Wilson, 1993; Grych & Fincham, 1993).

Most of the research relevant to the cognitive-contextual model has focused on the impact of

conflict, and of children's appraisals of conflict, on their immediate affective and coping

responses, although the model implies that these processes also affect children’s general

adjustment. If cognitive appraisals do indeed mediate the relationship between conflict and

adjustment, a possible process by which they do so may be through the repetition and

generalization of maladaptive cognitions. For example, repeatedly concluding that one is to blame

for parental conflict or that one's well-being is threatened may lead to more generalized depressive

or anxious cognitive styles. Consistent with this, Grych and Fincham (1993) found that appraisals

of threat and self-blame predicted children's self-reported internalizing problems concurrently.

Another study found that threat appraisals were related to both internalizing and externalizing

problems for boys and self-blame for parental conflict was related to internalizing problems for

girls (Cummings, Davies, & Simpson, 1994). Such findings do not address causality but findings

from the one longitudinal study of conflict appraisals that has been conducted are intriguing: boys'
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 5

appraisals of threat and self-blame from interparental conflict predicted internalizing behaviors

one year later (Fincham, Grych, Osborne, 1993). The hypothesized causal or contributory role of

early conflict appraisals in the development of adjustment problems is certainly a viable one, and

such a mechanism would predict continuity of maladjustment into adolescence and young

adulthood, if such cognitions become further entrenched and generalized to other domains of life

such as perceived control (Gilliom, 1996). The role of conflict appraisals in adolescent and adult

adjustment remains to be examined, however.

The Emotional Security Hypothesis

Recently, another hypothesis regarding the impact of marital conflict on children has been

proposed which is in many ways complementary to the cognitive-contextual model. Davies and

Cummings (1994) have proposed a model that highlights the affective processes which occur

when children witness anger between their parents, and which emphasizes in particular the impact

of parental conflict on children’s "emotional security." The construct of emotional security is

taken from attachment theory and expanded, such that it is seen to be directly influenced by

marital interactions as well as by the parent-child bond and other aspects of family functioning

such as parental supervision and discipline (Cummings & Davies, 1995). Emotional security is

described as a regulatory process which manifests itself in and is inferred from the organization of

multiple response systems in specific contexts (Cummings & Davies, 1996). Similar to

attachment theory, the goal of children's responses to marital conflict and other family events is

felt security. Unlike attachment theory, which stresses the ultimate evolutionary and survival

value of the attachment system, emotional security is thought to be a goal in itself (Cummings &

Davies, 1996).
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 6

According to this hypothesis, emotional security mediates the impact of marital conflict on

children's adjustment through affective, behavioral/motivational, and cognitive processes (Davies

& Cummings, 1994). First, children's ability to regulate their emotions may be disrupted by

repeated exposure to destructive marital conflict, so that children exposed to such conflict may

become more intensely and more readily distressed than other children when faced with signs of

conflict or other stressors. Second, the need for emotional security may motivate children to

behave in certain ways which are ultimately maladaptive but in the short term serve to change the

situation and/or regulate their negative affect (e.g., by intervening in conflict, withdrawing, or

misbehaving). Third, children's experiences with marital conflict may influence their developing

internal representations related to emotional security, such as representations of their parents'

relationships (and perhaps relationships and conflict in general), and the predictability and

controllability of their emotional environment. Such schemata may guide inferences, behavior,

and affect in a variety of domains and may have important implications for adjustment. Thus,

repeated exposure to intense, unresolved conflict increases emotional and behavioral reactivity in

the face of stress and activates negative expectancies, placing the child at risk for adjustment

problems.

The emotional security hypothesis is intuitively appealing, and a growing body of recent

research has been conducted to test it directly (Cummings & Davies, 2002). One study, in which

children’s induced emotion prior to witnessing interadult conflict influenced their appraisals of it,

supports the centrality of emotional processes in children’s coping with conflict and is consistent

with the emotional security hypothesis (Davies & Cummings, 1995). The emotional security

hypothesis is also consistent with much of the research on children's reactions to witnessing

conflict described previously. For example, the somewhat counterintuitive finding of children's
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 7

apparent sensitization to conflict over time could be accounted for in terms of the effect of

interparental discord on their emotional security. Cummings and Davies (1996) propose that

“emotional sensitization is adaptive because it highlights the potential threat and danger to their

well-being in high-conflict contexts ...[and]...prepares the child to quickly cope with possible

stress” (p. 133). Thus, sensitization to parental conflict is both a reflection of emotional insecurity

as well as a means of preserving some sense of security. In the long run, even though

sensitization is in the service of emotional security, it may lead to the development of

psychopathology. For instance, there is some evidence that difficulty regulating emotions and

behavior in response to conflict is associated with problems such as aggression (Cummings et al.,

1989; Cummings et al., 1985; Klaczynski & Cummings, 1989).

Marital Conflict and Adolescent Adjustment

Most of the research on the impact of marital conflict has been conducted with

preadolescent children. However, a few studies have demonstrated that adolescents'

functioning is also affected by marital conflict (Harold & Conger, 1997). In fact, among

divorcing families, older children and adolescents are more likely than younger children to exhibit

behavior problems, particularly in the context of preseparation marital conflict (Tschann,

Johnston, Kline, & Wallerstein, 1990). Some longitudinal findings suggest that the apparent

negative effects of divorce on adolescent adjustment can be accounted for by associated parental

marital conflict, at least for some youth (Block, Block, & Gjerde, 1986; Doherty & Needle, 1991;

Cherlin et al., 1991). Conflict in intact families is also a significant independent predictor of

adolescent problems (Amato, Spencer, & Booth, 1995; Kenny & Donaldson, 1991; Tannenbaum,

Neighbors, & Forehand, 1992) and has been shown to prospectively predict depressive and

delinquent symptoms in adolescence (Davies & Windle, 2001). In college students, concurrent
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 8

interparental conflict is negatively related to perceived competence, and perceived threat with

respect to conflict is related to competence, self-esteem, and identity integration (Bickham &

Fiese, 1997).

The relationship between marital conflict and adolescent adjustment is particularly

complex because of the difficulty of isolating the effects of age and exposure to conflict, as well

as other historical variables. Marital conflict in families with adolescents is unlikely to have arisen

suddenly and may have already disrupted many facets of family functioning. However, apart

from these complex factors, a small number of longitudinal studies suggest that the association

between marital fighting and child problems may become stronger with age, in part because

children seem to become sensitized to conflict with repeated exposure (E. M. Cummings, Zahn-

Waxler, & Radke-Yarrow, 1981, 1982; J. S. Cummings et al., 1989). Thus, exposure to marital

conflict during childhood is likely to have a continuing impact on the developing person, and the

relationship between adjustment problems and marital conflict in adolescence and young

adulthood may be largely due to a history of exposure. The present study examines the impact of

exposure to interparental conflict in childhood on adjustment in late adolescence.

In addition to a scarcity of research on the impact of marital conflict on late adolescent

adjustment, emotional security has not yet been examined in this age group. Studying these

variables in this particular age group is of interest for several developmental reasons. Establishing

stable intimate romantic relationships and friendships is an important task of late

adolescence/early adulthood (Erikson, 1963), and it is a process which would likely be influenced

by emotional security. In particular, one's relationship expectancies or internal models of

relationships derived in part from exposure to one's parents' relationship, may influence the

development of early adult relationships. Emotional security would also seem to be central to the
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 9

ability to meet many other demands of late adolescence, including the need for increased

autonomy, impulse control, and widening social networks. In the attachment literature, a central

assumption is that early attachment experiences influence relationships and adjustment throughout

the life span (Bretherton,1985). Similarly, the broader emotional security construct (which has its

origins in attachment theory) is presumed to have lifelong influence. Although long-term

longitudinal data are needed to test these assumptions with respect to late adolescence, a

preliminary step is to document concurrent links between adjustment and perceptions of early

experiences.

Integrating Cognitive and Emotion-Based Models

As mentioned, the cognitive-contextual and emotional security models are compatible

and complementary frameworks in many ways, differing largely in their emphasis on

cognitive and affective processes. Each model includes a role, albeit less prominent, for the other

construct: the cognitive-contextual model acknowledges the importance of affective responses to

conflict, and the emotional-security hypothesis posits a cognitive component process. However,

the two constructs may be equally important and related mediators of the impact of marital

conflict on adjustment. For instance, conflict may have the greatest impact on emotional security

in the presence of negative cognitive appraisals, and/or low security due to past exposure may lead

to more negative appraisals. Certainly, coping behavior is likely to be affected by both emotion

and cognition. Thus, the best model for understanding the relationship between marital conflict

and adjustment may be one that integrates the central constructs of emotional security and

cognitive appraisals and gives equal weight to each.

The present study attempted to test such a model. First, we hypothesized that cognitive

appraisals and emotional security both would mediate the link between marital conflict and
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 10

adjustment. Current psychosocial functioning was predicted to be related to reports of childhood

interparental conflict, to appraisals of threat and self-blame, and to emotional insecurity.

Specifically, negative appraisals of prior conflict and low emotional security were both expected

to be related to poorer adjustment (or greater symptomatology) in college students. Given these

associations, it was predicted that cognitive appraisals and emotional security should both

significantly improve the fit of the model over models containing either one alone.

Further, we expected that there would be a relation between appraisals of parental conflict

and emotional security. Although theory would suggest bi-directional effects, in our study we

predicted that the direction of the path would be from appraisals to security, since conflict

appraisals (although measured as current perceptions) referred to childhood experiences whereas

the emotional security measure reflected current experiences. Hence, according to this initial

hypothesized model, an individual with a history of exposure to destructive interparental conflict

would develop negative appraisals of the conflict and its implications for him or her. These

appraisals, particularly those involving threat, would reduce emotional security. Ability to

regulate affect and cope effectively under stress would be compromised over the long term, and

the individual would develop maladaptive behavior patterns and negative schemata regarding the

emotional stability of relationships and the availability of important others. Over time, these

cognitive, affective, and behavioral disruptions would impede functioning in a variety of domains

and contribute to the development of anxiety and depression.

The present study tested the above-described integrated model in a college student

population, using retrospective appraisals of interparental conflict experienced during childhood.

Although there are obvious limitations of using retrospective accounts of events that took place in

childhood, attachment theorists such as Van IJzendoorn (e.g., 1995) have suggested that “an
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 11

adult’s evaluation of childhood experiences and their influence on current functioning becomes

organized into a relatively stable ‘state of mind’ with respect to attachment (p. 387).” Regardless

of objective accuracy, these current mental representations of attachment experiences are thought

to guide, for example, parents’ responsiveness to their own children’s attachment behaviors and

therefore underlie the documented links between parent and child attachment style (Main, Kaplan,

& Cassidy, 1985; Van IJzendoorn, 1995). Similarly, current states of mind or mental

representations of emotional security-related experiences, such as parent marital conflict, may

constitute an important reflection of current emotional security, and may influence behavior in

relationships, regardless of whether or not they are veridical.

The present study also addressed the issue of measuring emotional security in a late

adolescent/young adult population. Although emotional security has been conceptualized by

Cummings and Davies (1995, 1996) as a complex regulatory system in which the goal of security

organizes responses to stress, it could also be considered to be a relatively stable characteristic,

similar to but broader than attachment security. By late adolescence and young adulthood, we

would expect some individuals to be more “emotionally secure” than others as a partial result of

past experience, and it is this aspect of emotional security that we have attempted to capture.

Despite the assumption that emotional security has its origins in early family experiences,

it may eventually manifest itself in a variety of socioemotional domains. Following Davies and

Cummings' (1994) general delineation of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of

emotional security, the approach taken was to obtain self-reported beliefs and behaviors in these

three domains. Thus, self-descriptions of relationship beliefs, affect regulation, and interpersonal

behavior (particularly with regard to emotional expression) were obtained. This approach is

somewhat similar to that used in the adult attachment research (e.g., Hazan and Shaver, 1987),
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 12

which measures attachment style or security of attachment using self-reports of relationship-

relevant behavior. Using this approach, Hazan and Shaver (1987) demonstrated a distribution of

attachment patterns across two adult samples similar to that found in infancy, and that self-reports

of attachment styles were related in expected ways to experience with romantic love, beliefs about

relationships, self-descriptions, and remembered relationships with parents. Brennan and Shaver

(1993) similarly found a link between current romantic relationships and perceived quality of

parental relationships. Thus, this simple and straightforward approach seems to have some

validity and utility in measuring adult attachment, and a similar strategy may prove useful in

measuring emotional security in young adults and late adolescents as well.

Method

Participants

One hundred seventy-five undergraduate college students participated in the study.

The average age of participants in the sample was 19.3 years old (SD = 1.8). Sixty-eight percent

of participants were female, 81% identified their ethnic background as Caucasian, 10% as African

American, 5% as Asian American, 2% as Latino, and 2% as other.

Procedures

Participants completed paper-and-pencil measures of psychological functioning in a mass

testing environment. Participants who were interested were later assessed with a structured

diagnostic interview in private offices. These participants were also given measures of parents’

marital conflict, cognitive appraisal of parents’ marital conflict, and emotional security to

complete at home. Participants were instructed to complete the measures related to marital

conflict only if 1) their parents were married during at least a significant part of their childhood

and 2) they had clear memories of their parents living together. Half of the interviewed subjects
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 13

completed these measures before the diagnostic interview and the other half completed the

measures after the interview.

Instruments

Psychological functioning. Participants completed self-report measures of psychological

functioning which included the anxiety subscales (i.e., Obsessive-Compulsive, Interpersonal

Sensitivity, Anxiety, and Phobic Anxiety) from the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R;

Derogatis, 1983), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, &

Erbaugh, 1961). The SCL-90-R is a widely used measure of symptom distress. The anxiety

subscales have good internal consistency (alphas from .82 to .86) and test-retest reliability (rs

from .80 to .90) and these subscales have shown convergence with other conceptually related

subscales from several other instruments (Derogatis, 1983). The BDI is a frequently employed

measure of severity of depressive symptomatology and has high internal consistency (generally

alpha > .80) and correlates moderately with clinicians’ ratings of patient depression (rs from .62 to

.77).

As an independent rating of psychological functioning, participants were interviewed with

the Structured Diagnostic Interview for the DSM-III-R, Nonpatient Edition (SCID; Spitzer,

Williams, Gibbon, & First, 1990). The SCID yields complete information for making DSM-based

diagnoses for most Axis I (i.e., major psychiatric) disorders. In addition, the interviewer rates the

participant for impairment using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. For the

purposes of this study, only the GAF rating was used. Interviewers were five advanced graduate

students in clinical psychology and one clinical psychologist. Reliability analyses on 21 (12%)

videotaped interviews indicated good agreement (r = .83) for the GAF with a criterion rater.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 14

Parents’ marital conflict. Participants also completed the INTREX Questionnaire, medium

form (Benjamin, 1988) as a measure of remembered conflict between their parents. The INTREX

Questionnaire assesses interpersonal relationships along the dimensions of affiliation and

interdependence. The reliabilities of the long form range from .67 to .90 and there is substantial

support for the construct validity of the measure (Benjamin, 1988). Participants were asked to rate

the quality of their parents’ marital relationship during the time the participant was a child. For

the purposes of this study, only items representing mother to father and father to mother hostile

control (e.g., “He put her down, blamed her, punished her” ) and attack/recoil (e.g., “Without

thought about what might happen, she wildly, hatefully, destructively attacked him”) were used

as indicators of parental conflict.

Cognitive appraisal of parents’ marital conflict. To assess retrospective appraisals of their

parents’ conflict, subjects completed the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale

(CPIC; Grych, Seid, & Fincham, 1992). The CPIC is a 51-item instrument that assesses

children’s views of several aspects of marital conflict. A recent study with college student

respondents indicated good reliability and validity and suggested that the factor structure with this

older sample closely resembles that found with children (Bickham & Fiese, 1997). For the

present study, the items were worded to reflect participants’ retrospective reports of parental

conflict the participant observed before the age of 13 years old. Scores for the Perceived Threat

(e.g., “I felt scared when my parents argued”), Self-Blame (e.g., “It was usually my fault when

my parents argued”), and Coping Efficacy (e.g., “I didn’t know what to do when my parents

argued”) subscales were used as indicators of conflict appraisals. Internal consistencies for these

subscales across child and college student samples have ranged from .61 to .83.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 15

Emotional security. Included in the packet of measures was the Schema Questionnaire

(Young & Brown, 1990). The Schema Questionnaire is a 205-item measure of maladaptive

cognitive schemas as described by Young (1994). The items reflect extreme, dysfunctional

beliefs about one’s self to which respondents rate, on a 6-point scale, how true the statements feel

to them. The questionnaire has displayed good reliability and validity (Schmidt, Joiner, Young, &

Telch, 1995). In the present study, items were identified that seemed conceptually related to the

construct of emotional security as described by Davies and Cummings (1994). Specifically, items

that reflected poor regulation of affect (e.g., "I lose my temper at the slightest offense."), behavior

indicating insecurity in close relationships (e.g., "I find myself clinging to people I'm close to

because I'm afraid they'll leave me."), and negative expectancies about the stability of

relationships (e.g., "I don’t feel that important relationships will last; I expect them to end.") were

selected. Internal consistencies for these indicators in the present sample ranged from .75 to .86.

Results

A structural equation modeling strategy was used to evaluate the hypothesis that the effects

of parental conflict during childhood on current functioning were mediated by cognitive appraisal

of the conflict and by the effects of cognitive appraisal on emotional security. The factor loading

for one indictor per construct was fixed at unity to identify the scale of measurement for latent

constructs (e.g., Bollen, 1989). In the measurement model, the endogenous latent variable of

Parents’ Conflict was comprised of three indicators which were summary scores from the

INTREX questionnaire (i.e., mother-to-father hostile control, father-to-mother hostile control,

and a sum of attack/recoil in the marital relationship). Conflict Appraisal had three indicators

which were the Threat, Self-Blame, and Coping Efficacy subscales from the CPIC. The

endogenous latent variable of Emotional Insecurity was measured by sums of items scores for
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 16

three content-based “parcels” (MacCallum, Roznowski, & Necowitz, 1992, p. 494) which were

formed by grouping 24 items from the Schema Questionnaire. Parcels were created in order to

increase the range of the measured variables, which is essential in detecting the covariation among

variables (Kishton & Widaman, 1994). These item parcels represented the measured variables of

Poor Affect Regulation (10 items), Behaviors Indicating Insecurity about close relationships (5

items), and Relationship Expectancies reflecting low confidence in the stability of relationships (9

items). Current Functioning was measured by the total score from SCL-90-R Anxiety scales, the

Beck Depression Inventory score, and reverse scored Global Assessment of Functioning scale

from the SCID. Zero-order correlations among the measured variables are presented in Table 1.

The testing of competing structural models was based on systematic chi-square difference

testing of nested models (Bentler & Bonett, 1980). In this approach, the saturated model (which

in this case was the hypothesized model) was compared with three different structural sub-models

in which particular pathways were constrained to zero (such that each comparison model was

nested within the hypothesized model). Because we were interested in comparing the cognitive-

contextual and emotional security models with an integrated model, one comparison model

constrained the paths from cognitive appraisal to zero, another comparison model constrained

paths from emotional security to zero, and to test the linkage between the two mediators, a final

comparison model constrained the path from cognitive appraisal to emotional security to zero.

The three comparison models are shown in Figure 1.

Evaluation of the Structural Model

Table 2 presents model fit information for the hypothesized (i.e., saturated) and

comparison structural models. Three of the models tested yielded nonsignificant discrepancy

indexes, indicating good fit of the structural models with the data. The model in which paths from
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 17

emotional security were fixed at zero yielded a significant discrepancy index, suggesting lack of

fit to the data. Comparisons of the hypothesized model with the comparison models revealed that

the inclusion of paths from both cognitive appraisals and emotional security in the model provided

a significant improvement in model fit ( 2 (2) = 8.09, p < .005;  2 (2) = 26.04, p < .005).

However, including the path from cognitive appraisal of conflict to emotional security did not

significantly improve fit to the data ( 2 (1) = 0.01, ns), and a revised, more parsimonious model

did not include this path.

The significant standardized coefficients for the revised model, containing both

measurement and structural components, are shown in Figure 2. All coefficients were reliably

different from zero (p < .05) with the exception of the direct effect of parental conflict on current

functioning which was marginally significant (p < .08). As indicated in Table 2, the chi-square

test for the revised model showed good fit to the data, 2(47) = 43.99, p = 0.60. Inspection of

several other indices also supported the fit of the revised model: the Goodness of Fit Index was .

96; the Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index was .94, and Bentler and Bonett’s (1980) normed fit index

was .95.

Discussion

This study evaluated a model that described how exposure to parental conflict during

childhood might affect psychosocial functioning of older adolescents/young adults. The model

integrated two increasingly well-validated hypotheses that postulate that the effects of conflict

exposure on adjustment are mediated by cognitive appraisals of the conflict or by the detrimental

effects that conflict exposure may have on children’s emotional security. As noted earlier, these

are not rival hypotheses, but earlier work has not examined the proposed link between appraisals

and security nor has the relative contribution of each mediating variable been assessed. Although
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 18

the results of the present study do not support the proposed link between appraisals and security,

both play an important role in mediating the effects of conflict exposure on adjustment.

The results of the present study supported our prediction, consistent with the cognitive-

contextual model, that cognitive appraisals of threat, self-blame, and coping efficacy mediate the

effects of parental conflict on current adjustment in older adolescents/young adults. Through

repetition, children’s appraisals of parents' conflicts may contribute to the development of more

general attributional styles or cognitive biases. For example, invoking threat appraisals often as a

child may contribute to the strengthening and reactivity of a threat/vulnerability schema.

Similarly, repeatedly perceiving an inability to control or cope with parental conflict as a child

and blaming oneself for the conflict may lead to learned helplessness, pessimism, and perceived

inadequacy which may increase vulnerability to depression.

Also consistent with our prediction, emotional security acted as a mediator of the link

between interparental conflict and current adjustment. As noted earlier, interparental conflict may

diminish children’s emotional security through several processes. First, repeated exposure to

intense, unresolved interparental conflict may cause children to allocate excessive attentional

resources to conflict cues. Sustained vigilance may reduce children’s available cognitive

resources required to modulate emotions and behaviors effectively (Davies and Cummings, 1994).

Moreover, repeated conflict episodes in which the intensity of children’s emotion does not readily

dampen through cessation of the conflict, coping behaviors, or parental soothing may also erode

children’s felt security, their perceptions of their ability to regulate their own emotions, and their

belief that parents can and will help them modulate affective intensity. In addition, children may

become fearful of feeling out of control and overwhelmed by their own affect and develop

strategies (e.g., withdrawal, excessive clinginess, emotional constriction) to avoid experiencing

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 19

strong emotions. Consistent with this, Gordis, Margolin, and John (1997) found that boys were

more likely to exhibit anxious, withdrawing, and distracting behavior during conflictual family

interaction if they had been previously exposed to marital aggression.

However, the patterns and strategies that children develop to immediately regulate their

emotional security in response to interparental conflict may be maladaptive in the long run.

Difficulties in affect regulation, inflexible behavioral strategies to regulate conflict exposure, and

internal representations of unreliable interpersonal relationships can each create problematic

patterns of responding which persist across development and contribute to psychosocial distress.

Problems with affect regulation, defined as procedures used to maximize pleasant, and minimize

unpleasant emotions (Westen, Muderrisoglu, Fowler, Shedler, & Koren, 1997), perhaps most

directly contribute to negative affectivity. Rigid behavioral strategies for dealing with conflict are

likely to affect functioning somewhat indirectly by contributing to dysfunctional interpersonal

styles. For example, a child who learned to cope with parental conflict with withdrawal, thereby

effectively limiting exposure to stress, may fail to develop confidence in his ability to tolerate and

resolve interpersonal conflict. As an adolescent, he may attempt to avoid conflict by limiting peer

relations, leading to isolation and loneliness. Similarly, negative relationship expectancies may

motivate the individual to engage in behaviors that are intended to prevent rejection within close

relationships. For example, these expectancies may lead to a dependent style of relating within

intimate relationships, manifested by behaviors such as persistent reassurance-seeking, clinging,

and avoidance of separation. The direct consequences of these manifestations (e.g., worry,

diminished availability of attentional resources, interpersonal conflict) and the underlying

insecurity may contribute to depression, anxiety, and impaired functioning. In addition, these
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 20

behaviors may actually promote the ultimate feared outcome (i.e., rejection). Further research is

needed to investigate possible mechanisms such as these.

Although both the cognitive-contextual model and the emotional security hypothesis

propose that children’s appraisals of interparental conflict and their emotional security affect one

another, the present results did not support this proposition. Instead, the results suggest that

although appraisals and security are both important mediators of the association between parental

conflict and adjustment, they are more independent from each other than the models predict.

Exposure to parental conflict negatively affects each but appraisals do not seem to have a direct

causal effect on emotional security. One possible implication of these data is that there are two

different “channels” for processing information about parents’ conflict. This interpretation is

consistent with recent developments in information processing views of emotional disorders in

which a distinction is made between emotional and intellectual meaning systems (e.g., Teasdale &

Barnard, 1993). Such an interpretation might partially explain the counterintuitive finding that

some children from high-conflict homes rate adult anger as less negative in affect, despite

showing greater physiological reactivity to the anger, compared with children from low-conflict

homes (El-Sheikh, 1994; O’Brien, Margolin, John, & Krueger, 1991). It does not appear,

however, that positive appraisals (i.e., low threat and self-blame, high coping) would buffer the

effects of marital conflict on emotional security. Rather, exposure seems to have a fairly direct

effect on emotional security. Further, the results suggest that the effects may be additive to some

extent, such that exposure to marital conflict may be most disruptive to functioning if both

negative cognitive appraisals develop and emotional security is diminished.

Although the direct pathway between parental conflict witnessed as a child and current

functioning was not significant, a better fit to the data was achieved by including it the model.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 21

This may reflect the likelihood that there is some continuity between past marital conflict and

present marital dysfunction or dissolution (e.g., Gottman, 1993; Howes & Markman, 1989) and

that parents' current relationship problems continue to exert stress upon the individual.

This study also developed one method for measuring emotional security in a way that was

conceptualized with close regard to the emotional security hypothesis (Cummings & Davies,

1996; Davies & Cummings, 1995). Prior studies that have investigated links between family

relations during childhood and constructs similar to emotional security in older adolescents/young

adults have used measures that have been specific to attachment styles. However, because

emotional security is thought to be affected by more than just parent-child relations, a general

measure of security may more powerfully mediate the relations between marital conflict and

adjustment. This measure, or one based on a similar strategy of gathering self-reports of

emotions, behaviors, and expectancies, may prove useful to other investigators who are exploring

emotional security in adolescents and young adults.

Several limitations of the study should be acknowledged. Despite findings that are

generally consistent with models developed for younger children, the present study relied on

retrospective self-reports of interparental conflict and appraisals of this conflict. It has not been

determined how age may affect reports of interpersonal and cognitive processes from childhood.

In some respects, older adolescents and young adults may have a clearer perspective on the

conflict that occurred between their parents than they did as children. On the other hand,

retrospective reports are likely to be subject to forgetting, distortion, or interference from the

effects of later events (e.g., divorce). The results of this study, however, do not depend on the

presupposition that college students can accurately recall earlier parental conflict and their

appraisals of it at the time. As described earlier, attachment theorists propose that reports of early
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 22

experiences with parents reflect “current states of mind,” “internal working models,” or mental

representations of close relationships. The assumption of studies that assess adult perceptions of

early attachment relationships (e.g., the Adult Attachment Interview; George, Kaplan, & Main,

1985) is that autobiographical memory “is the ongoing reconstruction of one’s past, in light of

new experiences” (van Ijzendoorn, 1995, p. 388). The results of the present study could be

interpreted from a reconstructive approach and still indicate the importance of emotional security

and appraisals of parental conflict in adjustment. The appraisals, however, would be assumed to

reflect a heuristic or mental representation of childhood experiences that exert an influence on

adult adjustment.

A related issue is that the model in this study presumed causality flowing from parental

conflict to appraisals and security and finally to current adjustment. A compelling argument could

be made that current psychosocial adjustment drives perceptions of the moderating variables

which then affect reports of interparental conflict. Some evidence does exist, however, that

perceptions of early parenting are relatively stable and are not substantially altered by depressed

mood (Gotlib, Mount, Cordy, & Whiffen, 1988) or psychopathology (Brewin, Andrews, &

Gotlib, 1993). Determination of causality awaits results from prospective longitudinal studies.

In summary, our results suggest that parental conflict observed as a child has effects on

functioning in late adolescence/young adulthood through separate cognitive and affective

pathways. In one pathway, conflict leads to threat, self-blame, and coping appraisals which

perhaps over time become more general cognitive styles that operate as a diathesis for depression

and anxiety. In another pathway, marital conflict erodes children’s emotional security which

disrupts intra- and interpersonal regulation leading to psychosocial distress. Evaluation of the

specific mechanisms through which negative appraisals of conflict and reduced emotional security
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 23

have their effect on current adjustment (e.g., generalized attributional style, maladaptive behavior

patterns) is an important next step in future investigations.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 24

References

Amato, P.R., Loomis, L.S., & Booth, A. (1995). Parental divorce, marital conflict, and

offspring well-being during early adulthood. Social Forces, 73, 895-915.

Ballard, M. E., Cooper, C., & Huffman, D. (1994). Children's cardiovascular, verbal, and

behavioral responses to resolved and unresolved anger between adults. Paper presented at the

Conference on Human Development, Pittsburgh, PA, April, 1994.

Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. K. (1961). An

inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561-571.

Benjamin, L. S. (1988). Short form INTREX users’ manual. Madison, WI: INTREX

Interpersonal Institute.

Bentler, P. M., & Bonnett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness-of-fit in the

analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588-606.

Bickham, N. L., & Fiese, B. H. (1997). Extension of the Children’s Perceptions of

Interparental Conflict Scale for use with late adolescents. Journal of Family Psychology, 11, 246-

250.

Block, J.H., Block, J., & Gjerde, P.F. (1986). The personality of children prior to divorce:

A prospective study. Child Development, 57, 827-840.

Brennan, K., & Shaver, P.(1993). Attachment styles and parental divorce. Journal of

Divorce and Remarriage, 21, 161-175.

Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., & Gotlib, I. H. (1993). Psychopathology and early

experience: A reappraisal of retrospective reports. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 82-98.

Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York: Wiley.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 25

Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. Monographs of the

Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2), 3-35.

Cherlin, A., Furstenburg, F., Chase-Lansdale, P., Kiernan, K., Robins, P., Morrison, D., &

Teitler, J. (1991). Longitudinal studies of effects of divorce on children in Great Britain and the

United States. Science, 252, 1386-1389.

Christensen, A., Phillips, S., Glasgow, R. E., & Johnson, S. M. (1983). Parental

characteristics and interactional dysfunction in families with child behavior problems: A

preliminary investigation. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 11, 153-166.

Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. (1995). The impact of parents on their children: An

emotional security perspective. Annals of Child Development, 10, 167-208.

Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. (1996). Emotional security as a regulatory process in

normal development and the development of psychopathology. Development and

Psychopathology, 8, 123-139.

Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. (2002). Effects of marital conflict on children: Recent

advances and emerging themes in process-oriented research. Journal of Child Psychology and

Psychiatry, 43, 31-63.

Cummings, E. M., Davies, P., & Simpson, K. S. (1994). Marital conflict, gender, and

children’s appraisals and coping efficacy as mediators of child adjustment. Journal of Family

Psychology, 8, 141-149.

Cummings, E. M., Iannotti, R. J., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1985). Influence of conflict

between adults on the emotions and aggression of young children. Developmental Psychology, 21,

495-507.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 26

Cummings, E. M., Simpson, K. S., & Wilson, A. (1993). Children's responses to

interadult anger as a function of information about resolution. Developmental Psychology, 29,

978-985.

Cummings, E. M., Vogel, D., Cummings, J. S., & El-Sheikh, M. (1989). Children's

responses to different forms of expression of anger between adults. Child Development, 60, 1392-

1404.

Cummings, E. M., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1981). Young children's

responses to expressions of anger and affection by others in the family. Child Development, 52,

1274-1281.

Cummings, E. M., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1982). Developmental

changes in children's reactions to anger in the home. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,

25, 63-74.

Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An

emotional-security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 387-411.

Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1995). Children’s emotions as organizers of their

reactions to interadult anger: A functionalist perspective. Developmental Psychology, 31, 677-

684.

Davies, P. T., & Windle, M. (2001). Interparental discord and adolescent adjustment

trajectories: The potentiating and protective role of intrapersonal attributes. Child Development,

72, 1163-1178.

Derogatis, L. (1983). The SCL-90-R: Administration, scoring, and procedures manual-II.

Towson, MD: Clinical Psychometrics Research.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 27

Doherty, W.J., & Needle, R.H. (1991). Psychological adjustment and substance abuse

before and after parental divorce. Child Development, 62, 328-337.

El-Sheikh, M. (1994). Children’s emotional and physiological responses to interadult

angry behavior: The role of history of interparental hostility. Journal of Abnormal Child

Psychology, 22, 661-678.

El-Sheikh, M., & Cummings, E. M. (1992). Perceived control and preschoolers' responses

to interadult anger. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 15, 207-226.

Emery, R. E. (1982). Interparental conflict and the children of discord and divorce.

Psychological Bulletin, 92, 310-330.

Emery, R. E., & O’Leary, K. D. (1982). Children’s perceptions of marital discord and

behavior problems of boys and girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10, 11-24.

Emery, R. E., & O’Leary, K. D. (1984). Marital discord and child behavior problems in a

nonclinic sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 12, 411-421.

Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and Society (2nd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Fincham, F. D., Grych, J. H., & Osborne, L. (1993, March). Marital conflict and child

adjustment: A longitudinal analysis. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for

Research in Child Development, New Orleans, LA.

George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1985). Adult Attachment Interview. Unpublished

manuscript. University of California, Berkeley.

Gordis, E. B., Margolin, G., & John, R. S. (1997). Marital aggression, observed parental

hostility, and child behavior during triadic family interaction. Journal of Family Psychology, 11,

76-89.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 28

Gilliom, L. A. (1996). Children’s appraisals of interparental conflict, perceived control,

and internalizing symptoms. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill.

Gotlib, I. H., Mount, J. J., Cordy, N. I., & Whiffen, V. F. (1988). Depressed mood and

perceptions of early parenting: A longitudinal investigation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152,

24-27.

Gottman, J. M. (1993). The roles of conflict engagement, escalation, and avoidance in

marital interaction: A longitudinal view of five types of couples. Journal of Consulting and

Clinical Psychology, 61, 6-15.

Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1990). Marital conflict and children's adjustment: A

cognitive-contextual framework. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 267-290.

Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1993). Children's appraisals of marital conflict: Initial

investigations of the cognitive-contextual framework. Child Development, 64, 215-230.

Grych, J. H., Seid, M., & Fincham, F. D. (1992). Assessing marital conflict from the

child’s perspective: The Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. Child

Development, 63, 558-572.

Harold, G. T., & Conger, R. D. (1997). Marital conflict and adolescent distress: The role

of adolescent awareness. Child Development, 68, 333-350.

Hazan, C. & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.

Hetherington, E. M., Cox, M., & Cox, R. (1982). Effects of divorce on parents and

children. In M. Lamb (Ed.), Nontraditional families (pp. 233-288). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 29

Howes, P., & Markman, H. J. (1989). Marital quality and child functioning: A

longitudinal investigation. Child Development, 60, 1044-1051.

Jacobson, N.S. (1978). The impact of marital separation/divorce on children: II.

Interparent hostility and child adjustment. Journal of Divorce, 2, 3-19.

Johnson, P. L., & O’Leary, K. D. (1987). Parental behavior patterns and conduct disorder

in girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 573-581.

Jouriles, E. N., Murphy, C. M., & O'Leary, K. D. (1989). Interspousal aggression, marital

discord, and child problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 453-455.

Jouriles, E. N., Pfiffner, L. J., & O’Leary, S.G. (1988). Marital conflict, parenting, and

toddler conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 197-206.

Kenny, M. E., & Donaldson, G. A. (1991). Contributions of parental attachment and

family structure to the social and psychological functioning of first-year college students. Journal

of Counseling Psychology, 38, 479-486.

Kishton, J. M., & Widaman, K. F. (1994). Unidimensional versus domain representative

parceling of questionnaire items: An empirical example. Educational and Psychological

Measurement, 54, 757-765.

Klaczynski, P. A., & Cummings, E. M. (1989). Responding to anger in aggressive and

nonaggressive boys. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 309-314.

Long, N., Forehand, R., Fauber, R., & Brody, G. H. (1987). Self-perceived and

independently observed competence of young adolescents as a function of parental marital

conflict and recent divorce. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 15-27.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 30

Long, N., Slater, E., Forehand, R., & Fauber, R. (1988). Continued high or reduced

interparental conflict following divorce: Relation to young adolescent adjustment. Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 467-469.

MacCallum, R. C., Roznowski, M., Necowitz, L. B. (1992). Model modifications in

covariance structure analysis: The problem of capitalization on chance. Psychological Bulletin,

111, 490-504.

Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and

adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in

Child Development, 50 (1-2, Serial No. 209).

Mann, B. J., & MacKenzie, E. P. (1996). Pathways among marital functioning, parental

behaviors, and child behavior problems in school-age boys. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology,

25, 183-191.

Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (1994). Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional

disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 45, 25-50.

O’Brien, M., Margolin, G., John, R. S., & Krueger, L. (1991). Mothers’ and sons’

cognitive and emotional reactions to simulated marital and family conflict. Journal of Consulting

and Clinical Psychology, 59, 692-703.

Peterson, J. L., & Zill, N. (1986). Marital disruption, parent-child relationships, and

behavior problems in children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 295-307.

Porter, B., & O'Leary, K. D. (1980). Marital discord and childhood behavior problems.

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 8, 287-295.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 31

Schmidt, N. B., Joiner, T. E., Young, J. E., & Telch, M. J. (1995). The Schema

Questionnaire: Investigation of psychometric properties and the hierarchical structure of a

measure of maladaptive schemas. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 19, 295-321.

Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Gibbon, M., & First, M. B. (1990). Structured Clinical

Interview for DSM-III-R—Nonpatient edition (SCID-NP, Version 1.0). Washington, DC:

American Psychiatric Press.

Tannenbaum, L., Neighbors, B., & Forehand, R. (1992). The unique contribution of four

maternal stressors to adolescent functioning. Journal of Early Adolescence, 12, 314-325.

Teasdale, J. D., & Barnard, P. J. (1993). Affect, cognition, and change: Re-modelling

depressive thought. Hove, UK: Erlbaum.

Tschann, J. M., Johnston, J. R., Kline, M., & Wallerstein, J. S. (1990). Conflict, loss,

change and parent-child relationships: Predicting children’s adjustment during divorce. Journal

of Divorce, 13, 1-22.

Van Ijzendoorn, M.H. (1995). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness,

and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment

Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 387-403.

Westen, D., Muderrisoglu, S., Fowler, C., Shedler, J., & Koren, D. (1997). Affect

regulation and affective experience: Individual differences, group differences, and measurement

using a Q-sort procedure. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 429-439.

Young, J. E. (1994). Cognitive therapy for personality disorders: A schema-focused

approach. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.

Young, J. E., & Brown, G. (1990). Schema Questionnaire - second edition. New York:

Cognitive Therapy Center of New York.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 32

Table 1

Zero-Order Correlations Among Manifest Variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 M SD
1. F to M Hostile Control -.- 0.53**** 0.53**** 0.40**** 0.24*** 0.27**** 0.28**** 0.32**** 0.38**** 0.14 0.12 0.23*** 21.1 21.8

2. M to F Hostile Control -.- 0.77**** 0.34**** 0.21** 0.22*** 0.27**** 0.32**** 0.39**** 0.21** 0.18* 0.31**** 29.3 23.2

3. M and F Attack/Recoil -.- 0.31**** 0.18* 0.28**** 0.28**** 0.28**** 0.34**** 0.18* 0.13 0.21** 12.8 14.5

4. Threat Appraisal -.- 0.40**** 0.54**** 0.26**** 0.26**** 0.37**** 0.32**** 0.27**** 0.26**** 4.3 3.2

5. Self-Blame Appraisal -.- 0.35**** 0.16* 0.20** 0.23*** 0.25**** 0.20** 0.17* 1.4 1.7

6. Coping Appraisal -.- 0.33**** 0.30**** 0.35**** 0.29**** 0.28**** 0.29**** 5.8 2.7

7. Affect Regulation -.- 0.66**** 0.70**** 0.53**** 0.46**** 0.41**** 18.5 6.8

8. Behavioral Insecurity -.- 0.85**** 0.50**** 0.45**** 0.39**** 9.2 4.0

9. Relationship Expectancies -.- 0.50**** 0.49**** 0.41**** 21.8 9.3

10. SCL-90-A -.- 0.66**** 0.49**** 79.6 20.7

11. BDI -.- 0.54**** 15.5 9.0

12. GAF-R -.- 23.3 10.1

Note. F = father; M = mother; SCL-90-A = Symptom Checklist-90 anxiety subscales; BDI = Beck Depression Inventory;

GAF-R = Global Assessment of Functioning - reverse scored.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .005. ****p < .001.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 33

Table 2

Structural Model Tests of Mediated Parental Conflict-Current Adjustment Association

Model 2 p GFI 2 diff vs. hypothesized

Saturated (hypothesized) model 2(46) = 43.98 .56 .961

Model with APP-EMO and APP-FUN paths constrained to zero 2(48) = 52.87 .29 .952 2(2) = 8.89*

Model with APP-EMO and EMO-FUN paths constrained to zero 2(48) = 70.02 .02 .937 2(2) = 26.04*

Model with APP-EMO constrained to zero 2(47) = 43.99 .60 .961 2(1) = 0.01, ns

Note. APP = conflict appraisal; EMO = emotional security; FUN = current functioning; GFI = goodness-of-fit index;

ns = nonsignificant. Ns = 175 for all chi-squares.

*p < .005.
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 34

Figure Captions

Figure 1. Structural models that were compared with the saturated (hypothesized) model.

Figure 2. Results of the revised parental conflict - current adjustment model. Circles represent

latent constructs and rectangles represented manifest variables. Standardized estimates are

reported. Superscript f denotes parameters set to 1.0 in the unstandardized solution.

 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 35

CONFLICT
APPRAISAL

PARENTS’ CURRENT
CONFLICT FUNCTIONING

EMOTIONAL
INSECURITY

CONFLICT
APPRAISAL

PARENTS’ CURRENT
CONFLICT FUNCTIONING

EMOTIONAL
INSECURITY

CONFLICT
APPRAISAL

PARENTS’ CURRENT
CONFLICT FUNCTIONING

EMOTIONAL
INSECURITY
 Emotional Security and Cognitive Appraisals 36

Threat Self-Blame Coping Efficacy

.79f .51 .69

Mother to Father CONFLICT SCL-90-R

f
Hostile Control .54 APPRAISAL .78 Anxiety
.80
.62

Father to Mother .57 PARENTS’ ns CURRENT .82 Beck Depression

Hostile Control CONFLICT FUNCTIONING Inventory
.66 .69
.61f .69
Attack/Recoil EMOTIONAL Global Assessment
INSECURITY of Functioning
.74f .96
.88
Poor Regulation Relationship
of Affect Behaviors Expectancies
Indicating
Insecurity