ABSTRACT
We developed the Family Coding System (Margolin & Gordis, 1992) as part of a larger project examining the effects of marital conflict on children. We developed this system to capture triadic family interactions involving mother, father, and child during a discussion about a behavior of the child’s that is of concern to the parents and about which the parents experience some disagreement with each other. The task thus has the potential to evoke two types of conflict, that between parents and between parents and child. The discussion occurs while the family eats a snack, simulating a family meal. We have used the task and coding system with a multiethnic sample of two-parent families with a child age 9 to 13. We have used the procedures with families of girls and boys.
