Congruence in Marital and Parenting Behaviors: Implications for Later Parent-Child Relationships

This study investigated whether parents’ marital relationships during the young adulthood years indirectly predict later older parent-adult child relationships through congruence in parents’ marital and parenting behaviors over time. We found that parents’ marital hostility covaried with parents’ parenting hostility over time, which predicted later parent-adult child relationship quality.