Romantic Partner Satisfaction Among Low-Income Mothers: Links to Child-Peer and Teacher Relationships via Mother-Child Conflict.

Abstract

The current project explores maternal inter-parental (IP) romantic partner satisfaction in relation to mother-child conflict and later peer and teacher relations from early to middle childhood among a sample of low-income, ethnically diverse mothers (N = 271) who were part of a longitudinal study testing the effectiveness of the Family Check-Up intervention. We hypothesized spillover effects from IP dissatisfaction during early childhood to mother-child conflict two years later. Greater mother-child conflict in turn was expected to lead to poorer peer relations and greater conflict with teachers in middle childhood. Results support a spillover effect from lower IP satisfaction at age 3 to higher mother-child conflict at age 5 to poorer peer relations and greater conflict with teachers at school at ages 8.5, 9.5, and 10.5. Mother-child conflict significantly mediates these pathways. Results support the importance of IP satisfaction and mother-child conflict in early childhood as critical factors in pathways leading to low-income children's social relationships at school during middle childhood.