A meta-analysis of children feeling caught between parents and parent-child relationship quality

This meta-analysis reviews the findings from 26 studies ( N = 8,061) examining the association between children feeling caught between parents (also referred to as parent-child triangulation) and parent-child relationship quality. The cumulative evidence indicated a small but meaningful inverse relationship between children feeling caught and relationship quality with parents ( r = −.218, 95% CI: −.260, −.175). The overall effect was heterogenous. Moderator analyses revealed that the inverse association was stronger in studies using non-U.S. samples ( k = 4, r = −.332, 95% CI: −.419, −.239) compared with U.S. samples ( k = 22, r = −.197, 95% CI: −.237, −.155). Conversely, the association was not moderated by the divorce status of the parents, the Whiteness of the samples, gender of the children, measures of feeling caught and relationship quality, or by research design. Implications for family systems theory are discussed.