Faculty Publications

Marital Interaction in Dyadic and Triadic Contexts: Continuities and Discontinuities

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Family Process

Volume

38

Issue

1

First Page

105

Last Page

115

Abstract

While the systemic metaphor used in much current family research requires examination of the interrelationships among individuals, relationships, and the family as a whole, work on triadic relationships has generally been missing. This research examined the presence of second-order effects in marital interaction: changes in interactions between spouses when the husband-wife dyad became a parent-parent-child triad. Results indicated the presence of consistent context effects. Parental behavior when alone was not a good predictor of parental behavior in the presence of a child: behaviors occurred at significantly lower levels in parental dyads than in parent-parent-child triads, and correlations across the two contexts were less than consistent. Results are discussed in light of their implications for observations of families.

Department

School of Applied Human Sciences

Original Publication Date

7-28-2004

DOI of published version

10.1111/j.1545-5300.1999.00105.x

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