ABSTRACT
In emphasizing a family systems perspective on conflict, Cummings pointed to the need to recognize that the marital relationship will certainly affect children. Thus, the link between interparental conflict and children's adjustment is explained at least in part by the increased parental rejection, hostility, and lax control that occurs when parents are caught up in conflict with one another. Most of the research examining parent-child relationships as a mediator of inter-parental conflict and adjustment has taken a 'dyadic' perspective. In the clinical and developmental literatures, various labels have been used to describe altered patterns of parent-child relationships that develop in situations of inter-parental conflict, including triangulation, loyalty conflicts, alignment, coalitions, scapegoating, and detouring. In scapegoating, the parental conflict is not openly acknowledged; instead, the parents focus on the child as a source of problems. Several of the points raised by Cummings are relevant to the question of whether the impact of conflict varies by family structure.
