Parental Parent Conflicts
Conflict between parents harms kids in part because of a spillover effect: parents in high-conflict relationships tend to be worse parents, engaging in more criticism, aggression, making threats, shouting, and hitting. ... But parental conflict also seems to harm kids even apart from its effects on parenting.
Children suffer from their parents' conflicts
From a very early age—as young as six months, some researchers say—children show distress when their parents fight. Their reactions can include fear, anger, anxiety, and sadness, and they are at higher risk of experiencing a variety of health problems, disturbed sleep, and difficulty in focusing and succeeding at school. They may "externalize" their distress in the form of "aggression, hostility, anti-social and non-compliant behaviour, delinquency and vandalism," or "internalize" it in the form of "depression, anxiety, withdrawal and dysphoria."
In addition, "children from high-conflict homes are more likely to have poor interpersonal skills, problem solving abilities and social competence." Those problems negatively impact their romantic relationships in adolescence and adulthood, as conflicts cause children to "perceive themselves and their social worlds more negatively" and to "have more negative pictures or internal representations of family relationships." Thus the high-conflict relationship of one couple can produce other negative relationships in the next generation.
Conflict in the family
The impact on the children and how that is displayed depends of the level of the conflict or dispute which can include hostile relationships between parents, children being brought into disputes, parental alienation, poor parenting practices, negative parent-child relationships and maternal depression.
Resolving Parenting Conflicts
Conflict between parents harms kids in part because of a spillover effect: parents in high-conflict relationships tend to be worse parents, engaging in more criticism, aggression, making threats, shouting, and hitting. ... But parental conflict also seems to harm kids even apart from its effects on parenting.
Children suffer from their parents' conflicts
From a very early age—as young as six months, some researchers say—children show distress when their parents fight. Their reactions can include fear, anger, anxiety, and sadness, and they are at higher risk of experiencing a variety of health problems, disturbed sleep, and difficulty in focusing and succeeding at school. They may "externalize" their distress in the form of "aggression, hostility, anti-social and non-compliant behaviour, delinquency and vandalism," or "internalize" it in the form of "depression, anxiety, withdrawal and dysphoria."
In addition, "children from high-conflict homes are more likely to have poor interpersonal skills, problem solving abilities and social competence." Those problems negatively impact their romantic relationships in adolescence and adulthood, as conflicts cause children to "perceive themselves and their social worlds more negatively" and to "have more negative pictures or internal representations of family relationships." Thus the high-conflict relationship of one couple can produce other negative relationships in the next generation.
Conflict in the family
The impact on the children and how that is displayed depends of the level of the conflict or dispute which can include hostile relationships between parents, children being brought into disputes, parental alienation, poor parenting practices, negative parent-child relationships and maternal depression.
Resolving Parenting Conflicts
- Hear what your child's other parent thinks. By listening to your child's other parent, you can begin to understand the source of the conflict and work toward a solution
- Draw attention to the conflict
- Express yourself without blaming
- Avoid generalizations