Today’s young generation is suffering a strong impact of conflicts at their homes. Many parents often fail to realize the adversity of their disputes on their children. As per the researchers, today, the best solution to this problem is resolving the conflicts constructively. It helps to maintain respect and calmness even if there are differences in opinions. The way parents deal with family and marital conflicts impact kids.
What researchers say
Researchers of the University of Arizona said that the child is likely to feel secure and safe at home if parents constructively handle their conflicts or disagreements and maintain calmness and respect even after a difference in opinion. But it’s opposite if parents handle the disputes destructively. Children feel more insecure in this environment. A child might pick nuances from how the parents are interacting and might react in the same way with others.
Research conducted analyzed low-income families. This category is believed to be most affected by researchers. This could happen on account of many stresses associated with financial strife. The parents who participated adopted their first child at the start of the project and were unmarried. The study was conducted in three ways, but they focused more on the third wave.
About the third wave
This focused on the data collected when the children adopted were three years old. Fathers and mothers were surveyed at the point about their perceptions of conflict management behaviors. It was essential to know both of their opinion, and how their child reacts when they witness conflicts between their parents. It was more comprehended when similar studies based on data taken only from mothers without fathers helped them to reach a clearer picture of what was wrong.
Parenting matters
Researchers looked down more at harsh and supportive parenting behaviors. They measured through direct observations of each parent separately. These behaviors included making a definite statement, being sensitive towards child and engaging them in stimulating ways. While on the other hand, harsh parenting included more intrusive and forceful behavior. It doesn’t matter if the parent is a father or mother, but what affects the most is how the parents managed their conflicts with each other. Constructive conflict is what made children feel less insecure about the family climate.
Constructive argument
The misconception that most low-income families are at risk for dysfunctional behaviors confined to very few couples. Only 3% of couples from the sample came out to handle conflict destructively. In general, parents need to be aware of the way they are interacting with each other. They must remember that conflict should not be necessarily avoided but handled in a way that might make a child a bit less threatened.
It all concludes to one thing; it may not be possible to avoid all such instances as frictions are bound to happen. But instead of arguing destructively, what you can do is, try to have constructive conflicts so that your child won’t suffer any kind of emotional trauma. You must try to develop a friendly environment for your kid.