Exposure to Marital Conflict and Violence and Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Effects
Exposure to marital conflict and violence is linked with negative emotional and behavioral problems among children. It is well established that the effects are unfortunate in children’s development. Internalizing (emotional) and externalizing (behavioral) symptoms are common for children who come from homes with marital conflict and violence. Along with both symptoms poor academic conduct is also huge issue. Emery (1982, cited in Glaser, Glass, Horne, & Marks, 2001) states conflict that is openly hostile is characterized as the most upsetting. Conflicts without resolution have the greatest negative impact and leave long term and short term consequences.
As a child being raised in a disturbed home, they can only try to make sense of their surroundings. The cognitive contextual framework proposes that how a child judges their parents marital relationship plays a key role. The way they judge this determines the impact of the conflict on their own development. Another theory is the developmental psychopathology framework which offers an integrative framework for conceptualizing the course of development during adolescence, in this case studying the exposure to marital conflict and violence.
The prevalence of divorce is high in the United States, half of all marriages end this way, but marital conflict and violence is not always accounted for. However, conflict and violence can be related to divorce making the likeliness of conflict a high percentage. Looking at numbers leads to the statistics of gender differences. Boys and girls differ in some aspects of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, but bother are affected. Along with gender, age plays a factor as well with the way a child perceives the event and what their involvement pertains. The risk factors associated with witnessing marital conflict and violence take a toll on children transforming a nurturing home into a place of apprehension, teaching unacceptable behaviors,
and most importantly damaging development. Accidental or not, obstructing a child’s development is unethical. Promoting a safe, healthy, environment and enhancing human wellbeing is essential for a child’s development.
Cognitive Contextual Framework
How children make sense of their parent’s marital relationship and conflict plays a key role in a child’s wellbeing and development. Grych and Fincham (1990, as cited in Harold & Shelton, 2008) state the specific appraisals children assign to expression and management of conflict between parents… determine variation in their symptoms of emotional and behavioral distress. As children become aware of marital conflict and consequently experience a range of fears associated with exposure to destructive marital discord, they first appraise the situation in terms of negativity, threat, and self-relevance ( Zimet & Jacob, 2001).