Cohort profile: the Dynamics of Family Conflict (FamC) study in Norway.

PURPOSE: The Dynamics of Family Conflict (FamC) prospective cohort study was set up to investigate how and why interparental conflicts and family relations develop over time, and in which contexts which types of conflicts and relations are most negative for which children. FamC focuses on the family within a scope spanning macrolevel as well as microlevel processes. PARTICIPANTS: Families were recruited from MoBa (pilot project) and family counselling offices across Norway when parents attended parental counselling, therapy or mandatory mediation in relation to parental relationship dissolution. All families were thus experiencing challenges and/or going through a family transition. Families were eligible for the study if parents had at least one joint child between 0 and 16 years. Both parents and up to five children from the same family could participate. A total of 2871 families were recruited (participation rate wave 1: 78%) and an estimated 55% of parents (based on wave 1 data) were divorced/separated. Additional data were obtained from therapists/mediators at the family counselling offices about the family, and childcare or schoolteachers provided data on the youngest (0-6 years) children. FINDINGS TO DATE: Results show that interparental conflict patterns vary with family constellation. Interparental conflict severity is inversely related to the discrepancy between child-reported and parent-reported child reactions to interparental conflicts, and child-self-reported reactions are higher relative to parent-reported child reactions. Other findings show that family characteristics (eg, the number and age of children in the family and financial difficulties) are predictive of the type of residence arrangement that parents practice. FUTURE PLANS: The cohort is ideally suited for cross-cultural comparisons and further examination of family processes and dynamics including parent repartnering, step-parents and new family members, associations between different family constellations and child adjustment, and fathering, father-child relationship and child adjustment. There are plans for further follow-up data collection.

Agreement between child and parent reports of children's reactions to interparental conflict.

Children's perception of interparental conflict is still a relatively unexplored research area. The aim of this study was twofold. First, we wanted to gain more knowledge about the relationship between child and parent reports of children's reactions to interparental conflict across three dimensions: Emotional Reactions, Involvement Reactions, and Avoidance Reactions. Second, we sought to clarify whether disagreement between child and parent reports was related to the interparental conflict severity. The sample consisted of 377 dyads/triads of mothers, fathers, and 11-year-old children (53.2% girls) recruited from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study. Paired sample t-tests and correlation analyses were used to investigate the absolute and relative agreement between child and both parents' perceptions. Polynomial regression analyses with response surface plots were used to investigate whether absolute agreement between child and mother and father reports, respectively, was related to the interparental conflict severity. Overall, children reported significantly higher levels of Emotional, Involvement, and Avoidance Reactions than did both parents, and the correlations between the reports were low to moderate. The absolute agreement between child and parent reports was related to the severity of interparental conflict for Emotional and Avoidance Reactions in the sense that larger discrepancy was related to less interparental conflict severity. The findings indicate that parents do not fully grasp children's reactions related to interparental conflict. However, contrary to our hypothesis, when interparental conflict was more severe, parents' responses were more similar to children's responses. The importance of acknowledging children's self-reported reactions is discussed along with clinical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).