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Marital Satisfaction and Parental Mental Health in Association with Secure-Base Provision to School-Age Children

The current study examines interrelations among family factors in a sample of married couples with children in middle childhood. Specifically, this study tested the associations between parents' mental health, marital satisfaction, and provision of a secure base through emotional sensitivity to the child. We further explored bidirectional and moderation effects between spouses. Participants included 86 heterosexual couples residing in the North Texas community. Using the actor-partner interdependence model, multilevel modeling results indicated that both spouse's mental health symptomology and relationship satisfaction are linked to parent's self-perceived ability to provide a secure base; several gender effects were also found. Additionally, actor relationship satisfaction significantly moderated the association between actor mental health symptomology and secure-base provision. In the context of low actor satisfaction, as the actor's mental health symptomology increases, secure-base provision also increases; however, in the context of high actor satisfaction, as actor's mental health symptomology increases, secure-base provision decreases. Additionally, partner relationship satisfaction significantly moderated the association between partner mental health symptomology and actor secure-base provision. In the context of low partner satisfaction, as partner mental health symptomology increases, actor secure-base provision increases; however, in the context of high partner satisfaction, as partner mental health symptomology increases, actor secure-base provision decreases. Spill-over, compensatory, and cross-over hypotheses, strengths, limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1248440
Date08 1900
CreatorsOosterhouse, Kendra
ContributorsRiggs, Shelley A., Blumenthal, Heidemarie, Kaminski, Patricia
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 73 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Oosterhouse, Kendra, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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