Interparental Discord and Parenting: Testing the Moderating Roles of Child and Parent Gender

Objective. This multimethod, prospective study examined whether child and parent gender moderate the relation between interparental discord and changes in parenting practices over a 1-year time span. Design. Self-report questionnaires of interparental discord and parenting as well as an observational measure of interparental discord were collected from a sample of 226 mothers and fathers of kindergarten children. Results. Multigroup analyses using structural equation models indicated that the relation between a multimethod assessment of interparental discord and changes in parent-reported childrearing practices varied significantly as a function of child gender only. Interparental discord predicted decreases in parental responsiveness to boys' distress while predicting increases in parental responsiveness to girls' distress. Moderating analyses further indicated that interparental discord predicted significant increases in parental use of psychological control with boys only. Conclusions. The considerable heterogeneity in previous research examining prospective linkages between interparental discord and parenting practices may be attributable, in part, to the moderating role of child gender. Differences in the moderating role of child gender across separate dimensions of parenting highlight the importance of distinguishing among specific parenting practices in examining gender differences in family pathways.