Marital relationship and early development

Abstract

In this article, we describe the history of psychological research on marriage and consider how marital relationships affect other family relationships and the social and emotional development of young children. Marital relationships can support or undermine the parenting of young children and are themselves affected by parenting. Marital interactions also are observed by the child and can be a critical source of learning about adult relationships, of modeling of behaviors related to conflict or emotional display, and of security or fear to a child when either reassuring or frightening behaviors are displayed by marital couples. We discuss these topics across a wide range of diverse family systems, including Western racial and ethnic minority couples, non-Western couples, and LGBT couples.