Over the course of seven years, Cummings and his colleagues examined 235 middle-class mothers, fathers and children, focusing on the links between marital conflict when the children were in kindergarten and the children’s emotional insecurity in the early school years, and subsequent problems during the teen years.
The study found that destructive conflict between parents when their children are young predicted children’s emotional insecurity later in childhood, which, in turn, predicted adjustment problems in adolescence, including depression and anxiety.
Cummings notes that not all parental conflict is bad. Previous research has shown that during constructive conflict, the use of support, verbal and physical affection, problem-solving and resolution, for example, elicit positive emotional reactions from children. Verbal hostility, physical aggression, nonverbal anger and withdrawal, on the other hand, is destructive conflict that elicits negative emotional and behavioral reactions.
End quote.
This is chilling. It suggests that parents really need to keep their actual fighting out of sight and hearing of the young children, which is really hard, overall, to hide.
It also suggests that staying together in a bad marriage is not good for the children. At all.
A quote from the link:
Over the course of seven years, Cummings and his colleagues examined 235 middle-class mothers, fathers and children, focusing on the links between marital conflict when the children were in kindergarten and the children’s emotional insecurity in the early school years, and subsequent problems during the teen years.
The study found that destructive conflict between parents when their children are young predicted children’s emotional insecurity later in childhood, which, in turn, predicted adjustment problems in adolescence, including depression and anxiety.
Cummings notes that not all parental conflict is bad. Previous research has shown that during constructive conflict, the use of support, verbal and physical affection, problem-solving and resolution, for example, elicit positive emotional reactions from children. Verbal hostility, physical aggression, nonverbal anger and withdrawal, on the other hand, is destructive conflict that elicits negative emotional and behavioral reactions.
End quote.
This is chilling. It suggests that parents really need to keep their actual fighting out of sight and hearing of the young children, which is really hard, overall, to hide.
It also suggests that staying together in a bad marriage is not good for the children. At all.
Made me sad to read this.