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An examination of father vulnerability and coercive family process after the birth of a sibling: A spillover cascade model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2018

Matthew M. Stevenson ,
Brenda L. Volling  and
Richard Gonzalez
Matthew M. Stevenson*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Brenda L. Volling
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Richard Gonzalez
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Matthew M. Stevenson, University of Michigan, Center for Human Growth and Development, 300 N. Ingalls, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Fathers are a crucial source of support for children following the birth of an infant sibling. This study examined whether fathers were more vulnerable to the effects of interparental conflict than mothers, and whether there was a subsequent spillover cascade from interparental conflict to children's externalizing behavior problems. We followed 241 families after the birth of a second child. Mothers and fathers reported on interparental conflict and parental efficacy at 1 and 4 months postpartum and punitive discipline and firstborn children's externalizing behavior problems across a longitudinal investigation (prenatal and 4, 8, and 12 months postpartum). For both mothers and fathers, interparental conflict prenatally predicted decreased parental efficacy following the birth. Fathers’ lower parental efficacy was significantly associated with increased punitive discipline toward the older sibling at 4 months, whereas mothers’ lower parental efficacy was not. Coercive family processes were present between mothers’ and fathers’ punitive discipline and older siblings’ externalizing behavior problems. Results were inconsistent with the father vulnerability hypothesis in that both mothers and fathers were vulnerable to interparental conflict, which in turn spilled over to create coercive family processes that exacerbated children's externalizing behavior problems in the year following the birth of a second child.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 573 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grants R01HD042607 and K02HD047423 (to B.L.V.). We are grateful to the parents and children of the Family Transitions Study, and the assistance of the many research staff who collected data over the course of the investigation.

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