Conflict is a regular occurrence for parents due to the high levels of interdependence between family members as well as the strong emotions often elicited in family relationships. Applying a family systems approach and building upon the conceptual framework of the Spillover Hypothesis, this dissertation examined parents communicative management of conflict across the marital and parent-child subsystems of the family. More specifically, this dissertation sought to clarify how a parents verbal conflict strategies and nonverbal expressions of emotion during conflict with ones spouse may influence ones communicative management of conflict with ones adolescent child. The episodic outcome of conflict as associated with the use of specific verbal conflict strategies and expression of emotion was also explored. One hundred parents engaged in two conflict discussions: (1) a dyadic interaction with ones marital/romantic partner and (2) a triadic interaction with ones partner and adolescent child. The verbal conflict strategies and nonverbal expressions of emotion of one target parent were coded for each interaction, while the parent self-reported the degree to which he/she perceived each conflict was resolved as a consequence of discussion. Results provided support for the transference of a parents verbal conflict behaviors, both constructive and destructive, across family subsystems. For nonverbal expression of emotion, a positive association was demonstrated for the expression of anger from the marital to the parent-adolescent conflict. Finally, for the marital conflict specifically, the use of the negotiation approach predicted increases in perceived conflict resolution, while the direct fighting approach predicted decreases in the perception that the conflict was resolved. Surprisingly, expression of anger in the marital conflict was positively associated with perceived conflict resolution. The results of this dissertation contribute to the understanding of parents communicative management of conflict across family subsystems, suggesting parents utilize a variety of constructive and destructive responses to manage problematic interactions with their romantic partner, which can influence responses to conflict with their adolescent child.