Parent Efficacy and Conflict Post Separation/Divorce: Building On Parents' Strengths To Reduce Children's Exposure To Emotional Harm

Purpose: The ability of child welfare workers to identify and respond effectively to children caught between their parents' disputes post separation/divorce is critical to ensure children are protected from emotional harm caused by the exposure to parent conflict. The negative impact of conflict on children is well documented (Johnston, 1994; Kelly, 2000) and has been found to be a more powerful predictor of children's maladjustment than the actual event of separation (Emery, 1994). This study investigates why some parents are able to work through feelings of preoccupation, hostility and loss towards their ex-partners, while others remain caught in ‘high conflict' disputes. Based on emerging research on the role of parent efficacy, this study explores the notion that parents' ability to protect children from the negative effects of conflict is influenced by their own positive feelings of parenting competency.

Method: Participants were recruited from a Mandatory Family Information Sessions held at a Superior Court in a large city. During the course of six months, 376 people met the inclusion criteria. Of those, 253 participants completed the questionnaire package with a response rate of 67.7%. The sample included 158 mothers and 95 fathers. To test the hierarchical regression model, both simple and multiple regressions analyses were conducted to identify the association of the independent variables (adult attachment styles, emotional and cognitive responses, parent-child contact, court-related variables and levels of interparental conflict) and the dependent variable of parenting functioning.

Results: As hypothesized, the regression analyses showed that parents with the highest level of parent efficacy were more likely to report secure adult attachment styles and the lowest levels of interparental conflict. Other connections to higher levels of parent efficacy included reduced interpersonal problems, more attention to feelings, higher levels of emotional clarity, the ability to regulate feelings, and a balance between coping processes of tenacity and flexibility. Parent efficacy was also influenced by the types of issues disputed in the courts (e.g. child support, visitation schedule) . Although separated on average of 2.7 years, many parents continued to be engaged in conflict with their ex-partner. Conflict was found to be related to lower levels of parent efficacy and this association was stronger for more severe types of conflict. The parents' sense of competence was not linked to gender or to the frequency of parent-child contact unless parents had less than weekly access with the children.

Implications: These findings provide new evidence that the inability to protect children from negative effects of conflict is influenced by the parents' own feelings of self-confidence and competency. In other words, when parents are caught in interparental conflict, their focused attention toward the conflict may debilitate their overall feelings of self-esteem and perceived effectiveness of parenting, thereby making them less able to protect the children from the conflict. To ensure children are protected from emotional harm, child welfare workers should intervene in high conflict situations to help parents explore ways to help parents build better confidence in their parenting roles despite the presence of conflict.