This article examines the relationship between coparenting and
family-level processes during preschool and peer relationship outcomes
in middle childhood, and the hypothesis that children's ability to
regulate emotion (as indexed by basal vagal tone and the ability to
suppress vagal tone) may moderate this relationship. We predicted that
high vagal tone and a greater ability to suppress vagal tone would
buffer children from the effects of negative coparenting and family
processes. Results indicated that hostile–withdrawn coparenting
predicted higher levels of conflicted play and lower levels of positive
peer conversation. Vagal suppression also moderated the relationship
between hostile–withdrawn coparenting and peer conflict. For
children who were unable to suppress vagal tone,
hostile–withdrawn coparenting was associated with higher levels
of peer conflict, while for children who were able to suppress vagal
tone there was no relationship hostile–withdrawn coparenting and
peer conflict. The relationship between hostile–withdrawn
coparenting and positive peer conversation was also moderated by
children's ability to suppress vagal tone. For children who were
unable to suppress vagal tone, there was no relationship between
hostile–withdrawn coparenting and positive peer conversation,
while for those who were able to suppress vagal tone,
hostile–withdrawn coparenting was associated with less positive
peer conversation. Cohesive family-level processes also predicted
positive conversation in play at age 9 after controlling for positive
conversation at age 5; however, this relationship was not moderated by
vagal suppression. Basal vagal tone also did not function as a
moderator of relations between hostile–withdrawn coparenting and
peer play. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of negative
coparenting on children with different patterns of modulating
physiological arousal.This research was
supported by a research grant from the National Institute of Mental
Health to the second author (1 R01 49141). The authors thank the
families involved for their participation.