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The authors examine mutual family influence processes at the level of children'srepresentations of multiple family relationships, as well as the structure ofthose representations. From a community sample with 3 waves, each spaced 1 yearapart, kindergarten-age children (105 boys and 127 girls) completed a story-stemcompletion task, tapping representations of multiple family relationships.Structural equation modeling with autoregressive controls indicated thatrepresentational processes involving different family relationships wereinterrelated over time, including links between children's representations ofmarital conflict and reactions to conflict, between representations of securityabout marital conflict and parent-child relationships, and betweenrepresentations of security in father-child and mother-childrelationships. Mixed support was found for notions of increasing stability inrepresentations during this developmental period. Results are discussed in termsof notions of transactional family dynamics, including family-wide perspectiveson mutual influence processes attributable to multiple familyrelationships.

(C) 2008 by the American Psychological Association