A common concept about children from divorced families is that that are at greater risk than children from intact families. They are known to have more problems at school and suffer more from anxiety and depression. It is feared that they are less socially responsible, are less capable of having strong intimate relationships, become sexually active art a younger age and are les securely attached adults Divorce is often found to be the culprit of these many maladaptive behaviors but the connection between these behaviors and children from divorced homes appears to happen in only 25% of divorced families when compared to 10% in intact families. Divorce does not account for these negative behaviors in the other 75% of children of divorced homes
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What is not normal is high or unresolved conflict or violent conflict. The impact of conflict on children varies by gender as well as age and culture. Not all conflict is considered harmful either. In some studies it has been shown that some conflict that is shown being resolved is helpful for children to learn conflict resolution skills. Social learning theory would express concern that in high conflict homes children will learn to deal with conflict with violence or not resolve inter-relationship struggles in a healthy manner. The fear is that they will continue to use violence and not learn to resolve conflict in future …show more content…
Zimetand and Theodore Jacob they summarize the results of research on marital conflict and child adjustment, “First, negative child outcomes are more strongly associated with family variables, particularly marital conflict, than divorce. Second, conflict and discord in intact, nonclinical families (as well as treatment-seeking families) is similarly related to the risk of child psychopathology. Third, findings suggest that children from divorced families appear to have higher levels of well-being than children from intact, high conflict families. Fourth, the negative effects of divorce on children are significantly reduced when predivorce functioning, including conflict, is taken into account. Finally, there is evidence that continued conflict between parents after divorce exacerbates negative child adjustment, whereas behavioral problems in children decrease when conflict also decreases after divorce. In brief, this first-generation of research reached the conclusion that marital discord and conflict are more significant to child maladjustment than family intactness. Playing a critical role in this shift was the work of Emery and Cummings and Cummings, who suggested that process dimensions (e.g., parent hostility) explain a greater amount of negative child-outcome variance than structural dimensions (e.g., divorced-intact)” (Zimetand & Jacob,
What is not normal is high or unresolved conflict or violent conflict. The impact of conflict on children varies by gender as well as age and culture. Not all conflict is considered harmful either. In some studies it has been shown that some conflict that is shown being resolved is helpful for children to learn conflict resolution skills. Social learning theory would express concern that in high conflict homes children will learn to deal with conflict with violence or not resolve inter-relationship struggles in a healthy manner. The fear is that they will continue to use violence and not learn to resolve conflict in future …show more content…
Zimetand and Theodore Jacob they summarize the results of research on marital conflict and child adjustment, “First, negative child outcomes are more strongly associated with family variables, particularly marital conflict, than divorce. Second, conflict and discord in intact, nonclinical families (as well as treatment-seeking families) is similarly related to the risk of child psychopathology. Third, findings suggest that children from divorced families appear to have higher levels of well-being than children from intact, high conflict families. Fourth, the negative effects of divorce on children are significantly reduced when predivorce functioning, including conflict, is taken into account. Finally, there is evidence that continued conflict between parents after divorce exacerbates negative child adjustment, whereas behavioral problems in children decrease when conflict also decreases after divorce. In brief, this first-generation of research reached the conclusion that marital discord and conflict are more significant to child maladjustment than family intactness. Playing a critical role in this shift was the work of Emery and Cummings and Cummings, who suggested that process dimensions (e.g., parent hostility) explain a greater amount of negative child-outcome variance than structural dimensions (e.g., divorced-intact)” (Zimetand & Jacob,