Children's Understanding of Marital Conflict and the Marital Relationship

Children's understanding of marital conflict and the marita1 relationship was investigated in 60 children (30 girls, 30 boys) from three age groups (5 years, 7 years, & 9 years).Age differences were hypothesized in children's conceptions of the causes of conflict, conflict resolution, the spousal relationship, family triangulation, and simultaneity of emotions.Children answered questions about stories involving family interactions.Five year old children explained conflict in ternis of one person being right and one person being wrong whereas seven and nine year old children understood conflict as resulting from diverging goals.Five year old children thought that con flict resolution occurred by people stopping angry behaviour whereas older children made reference to how at Ieast one person's goals needed to change.Children's understanding of triangulation increased with age.Seven and nine year old children think about their parents as parents and as one anothefs spouse, a distinction rarely made by five year old children.Significant age differences were not found in children's understanding of how both a positive and a negative emotion may be sirnultaneously directed to one person.In the literature examining the effects of marital conflict on children, the developmental constraints on children's understanding of conflict are rarely investigated.This study makes it clear that marital conflict is a very different type of stressor depending on the level of cognitive development of the child.