The Couples and Kids Project is a three-year prospective longitudinal study that investigated the ways couples handle everyday problems and how their interactions affect school-aged children. This project was funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. Data collection began in January of 1999 until October 2003, and approximately 300 two-parent families (mothers, fathers, and one child) participated.

A goal of this study was to identify, define, and distinguish between constructive and destructive parental conflict behaviors. To accomplish this goal, we used innovative methodologies, including parental daily diary reports of conflict that occurred in the home, laboratory observations of interparental conflict, and analog procedures of conflict. One of the key findings from this study is that it is not whether parents fight, but how they fight that has implications for children's development. Parents' use of destructive conflict tactics when discussing a disagreement (e.g., verbal hostility, withdrawal) where linked with higher levels of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; whereas constructive conflict tactics (e.g., problem-solving, calm discussion, verbal and physical affection) were linked to better child outcomes.

Selected Publications:

Papp, L. M., Kouros, C. D., & Cummings, E. M. (in press). Demand-withdraw patterns in marital conflict in the home. Personal Relationships

Papp, L. M., Cummings, E. M., & Goeke-Morey, M. C. (2009). For richer, for poorer: Money as a topic of marital conflict in the home. Family Relations, 58, 91-103.

Kouros, C. D., Merrilees, C. E., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Marital conflict and children's emotional security in the context of parental depression. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 684-697.

Merrilees, C. E., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Do event-contingent diaries about marital conflict change marital interactions? Behavior Research and Therapy, 46, 253-262. Peris, T. S., Goeke-Morey. M. C., Cummings, E. M., Emery, R. E. (2008). Marital conflict and support-seeking by parents in adolescence: Empirical support for the parentification construct. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(3), 497-505.

Kouros, C. D., Papp. L. M., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Interrelations and moderators of longitudinal links between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms among couples in established relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(5), 667-677.

Papp, L. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, E. M. (2007). Linkages between spouses' psychological distress and marital conflict in the home. Journal of Family Psychology, 21, 533-537.

Cummings, E. M., Kouros, C. D., & Papp, L. M. (2007). Marital aggression and children's responses to everyday interparental conflict. European Psychologist, 12, 17-28.

Du Rocher Schudlich, T. & Cummings, E. M. (2007). Parental dysphoria and children's adjustment: marital conflict styles, children's emotional security, and parenting as mediators of risk. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 627-639.

Goeke-Morey, M. C., Cummings, E. M., & Papp, L. M. (2007). Children and marital conflict resolution: Implications for emotional security and adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 21(4), 744-753.

Cummings, E.M., Schermerhorn, A.C., Davies, P.T., Goeke-Morey, M.C. & Cummings, J.S. (2006). Interparental discord and child adjustment: Prospective investigations of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism. Child Development, 77(1), 132-152.

Papp, L. M., Cummings, E. M., & Goeke-Morey, M. (2005). Parent-child relationship qualities as pathways linking parental psychological distress to child adjustment. Parenting: Science and Practice, 5(3), 259-284.

Cummings, E. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Papp, L. M. (2004). Everyday marital conflict and child aggression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 191-202.

Du Rocher Schudlich, T., Papp, L., & Cummings, E. M. (2004). Relations of husbands' and wives' dysphoria to marital conflict resolution strategies. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 171-183.

Papp, L. M., Cummings, E. M., & Schermerhorn, A. (2004). Pathways among marital distress, parental symptomatology, and child adjustment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 368-384.

Papp, L. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, E. M. (2004). Mother' and fathers' psychological symptoms, marital relationships and children's psychological functioning. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13(4), 469-482.

Du Rocher Schudlich, & Cummings, E. M. (2003). Parental dysphoria and children's internalizing symptoms: Marital conflict styles as mediators of risk. Child Development, 74, 1663-1681.

Cummings, E. M., Goeke-Morey, M., & Papp, L. (2003). Children's responses to everyday marital conflict tactics in the home. Child Development, 74, 1918-1929

Goeke-Morey, M. C., Cummings, E. M., Harold, G. T., & Shelton, K. H. (2003). Categories and continua of destructive and constructive marital conflict tactics from the perspective of Welsh and US children. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 327-338.

Papp, L. M., Cummings, E. M., & Goeke-Morey, M. C. (2002). Marital conflict in the home when children are present versus absent. Developmental Psychology, 38, 774-783.

Davies, P. T., Harold, G. T., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, E. M. (2002). Children's emotional security and interparental conflict. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 67 (3; Serial No. 270), 131 pages.