Research on interparental conflict has shown clearly that witnessing angry, conflictual interactions between parents can be a stressful experience for children (see Cummings & Davies, 1994). However, this work shows equally clearly that children differ in how they respond to interparental conflict. Even when children observe standardized conflict stimuli in laboratory settings, consistent individual differences in their responses are found (for a review, see Cummings & Davies, 1994). Similarly, children exposed to high levels of interparental conflict and violence exhibit a variety of adjustment outcomes, with some experiencing internalizing problems, others externalizing problems, and still others exhibiting no adjustment problems at all (Grych, Jouriles, Swank, McDonald, & Norwood, 2000). Investigating why children respond differently to conflict and whether their responses are linked to broader patterns of functioning are important goals for understanding how exposure to conflict affects children's development.

Conceptual models seeking to explain how children respond to conflict emphasize different intervening processes, but a common theme in these models is that the meaning of the interaction for children is critical for determining its effects (Crockenberg & Forgays, 1996; Davies & Cummings, 1994; Grych & Fincham, 1990). This perspective is consistent with the position of stress and coping theorists who have argued that how individuals evaluate events shapes their impact (Rutter, 1983; Garmezy, 1983; Compas, 1987), and with research implicating children's perceptions and interpretation of events in the development of internalizing and externalizing problems (see Dodge, 1993).