The DOI matches its Crossref record; 225 of the 225 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis.
Abstract
An emotional security hypothesis that builds on attachment theory is proposed to account for recent empirical findings on the impact of marital conflict on children and to provide directions for future research. Children's concerns about emotional security play a role in their regulation of emotional arousal and organization and in their motivation to respond in the face of marital conflict. Over time these response processes and internalized representations of parental relations that develop have implications for children's long-term adjustment. Emotional security is seen as a product of past experiences with marital conflict and as a primary influence on future responding. The impact and interaction of other experiential histories within the family that affect children's emotional security are also examined, with a focus on parent-child relations.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“destructive interparental interactions are stressful for adolescents to observe (Davies et al. 2007; El-Sheikh 1994), provide children with poor models of effective coping (Chorpita and Barlow 1998), and threaten children’s safety and security within the family system (Davies and Cummings 1994).”
From Mindfulness Interventions to Reduce Impact of Interparental Conflict on Adolescents. (2020) · cites this paper as Davies and Cummings 1994
In the citing paper
“EST postulates that children’s adjustment is influenced by the extent to which they feel secure in the family system.”
From Prospective Relations between Family Conflict and Adolescent Maladjustment: Security in the Family System as a Mediating Process (2015) · cites this paper as Davies & Cummings, 1994
In the citing paper
“However, research has focused on relations between conflicts in specific family systems, for example, interparental (e.g., Davies & Cummings, 1994) or parent-child hostility (e.g., Patterson, 1982), and children’s adjustment, rather than considering the implications of conflict in the family as a whole.”
From Prospective Relations between Family Conflict and Adolescent Maladjustment: Security in the Family System as a Mediating Process (2015) · cites this paper as Davies & Cummings, 1994
Citations
Cites
(1969) · Cited by 18,340
(1978) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 12,570
Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment
Rever, G. W. (1972) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-197211000-00011 · Cited by 8,446
Measuring Intrafamily Conflict and Violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales
Straus, M. A. (1979) · Journal of Marriage and the Family · doi:10.2307/351733 · Cited by 6,187
Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms.
Rutter, M. (1987) · American Journal of Orthopsychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03541.x · Cited by 5,831
A secure base: parent-child attachment and healthy human development
(1989) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.26-4750 · Cited by 4,885
(1982) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 2,951
Short Marital-Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Reliability and Validity
Locke, H. J., & Wallace, K. M. (1959) · Marriage and Family Living · doi:10.2307/348022 · Cited by 2,913
Children of depressed parents: An integrative review.
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.1.50 · Cited by 2,363
Handbook of infant development
Osofsky, J. D. (1979) · Cited by 2,263
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children
Amato, P. R. (2000) · Journal of Marriage and Family · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.01269.x · Cited by 2,931
Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment
De Wolff, M. S., & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (1997) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1997.tb04218.x · Cited by 2,526
Disorganized attachment in early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae
VAN IJZENDOORN, M. H., SCHUENGEL, C., & BAKERMANS–KRANENBURG, M. J. (1999) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579499002035 · Cited by 1,625
Child witnesses to domestic violence: A meta-analytic review
Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2003) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.71.2.339 · Cited by 1,524
The Effects of Family and Community Violence on Children
Margolin, G., & Gordis, E. B. (2000) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.445 · Cited by 1,252
Metadata
- Authors
- Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M.
- Affiliations
- West Virginia University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1994
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 387-411
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W1996010876
- Cited by
- 1,866
- References
- 225
- Citations by year
- 2026: 68 · 2025: 74 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 90 · 2019: 87 · 2018: 71 · 2017: 89 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 84 · 2014: 84 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 65
- FWCI
- 36.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- marital conflict, child adjustment, emotional safety, attachment theory, emotion regulation, emotional arousal, parental relationships, parent-child relationship, family experiences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Age Factors, Child, Psychology, Child, Child, Preschool, Conflict, Psychological, Emotions, Family, Humans, Infant, Marriage, Parent-Child Relations, Sex Factors, Social Adjustment
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.387
- The paper
- Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.387
