Interpersonal complementarity as a predictor of parent-child relationship quality

Shewark, Matern, Klump, Levendosky, & Burt, S. A. (2022) published “Interpersonal Complementarity as a Predictor of Parent–Child Relationship Quality” in the Journal of Family Psychology. I like this article because of its sample size (1030 families) and its methodology (a cooperative video-recorded task). Each member of the parent-child dyad was then rated for warmth and control twice a second. Here’s more:

Results illustrated high levels of warmth and control complementarity in parent-child relationships, with mothers showing more complementarity than fathers and greater control complementarity relative to warmth complementarity. Results showed mother-child and father-child warmth complementarity was associated with increased parent-child reciprocity, whereas mother-child and father-child control complementarity was associated with increased parent-child cooperation. In addition, father-child warmth complementarity was associated with a decrease in observed father-child conflict and an increase in father-child cooperation. Finally, father-child control complementarity was associated with a decrease in observed father-child reciprocity. However, no significant associations were found between complementarity and family reports of parental involvement or conflict with child. Results highlight complementarity as an important part of parent–child interactions but also indicate it is relationship- and domain-specific. 

This is a limited study in that (1) parents are likely to be on their best behavior when being observed and (2) the lack of associations between complementarity and family reports of parental involvement or conflict with the child seems counterintuitive. However, it suggests that we gather better information about how each parent interacts with a target child and the contexts in which those interactions occur.