The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of children's perceived marriage conflict and attachment upon internalizing and self-esteem problems. The subjects of the study were a total of 420 students from 5th and 6th grade students in S el...
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of children's perceived marriage conflict and attachment upon internalizing and self-esteem problems. The subjects of the study were a total of 420 students from 5th and 6th grade students in S elementary school and N elementary school in Daegu City. The instruments used were the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale, Inventory of Parent Attachment, Internalizing Problems Scale and Self-Esteem inventory. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS. Cronbach's α coefficients were calculated first to verify reliability of each scale. Next, an independent samples t-test was conducted to examine gender differences in the variables. Pearson's bivariate correlation analysis was also conducted in order to find out the correlation among variables. Then, multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine the influence of each independent variable on internalizing problems and self-esteem. The results from the analysis are as follows. The variables that influenced the internalization problem were maternal attachment, paternal attachment, and martial conflict, in that order. Among subordinate variables of maternal attachment, the influences of the predictor variables that significantly explained the internalization problem were shown to be alienation and communication, in that order. Among subordinate variables of paternal attachment, the predictor variable that significantly explained the internalization problem was alienation. Among subordinate variables of martial conflict, the influences of predictor variables that significantly explained the internalization problem were shown to be the severity of martial conflict and frequency of martial conflict, in that order. Variables that affected self-esteem were maternal attachment, paternal attachment, and martial conflict, in that order. Among subordinate variables of maternal attachment, the influences of predictor variables that significantly explained self-esteem were shown to be alienation, and confidence, in that order. Among subordinate variables of paternal attachment, the predictor variable that significantly explained self-esteem was alienation. Among subordinate variables of martial conflict, the influences of predictor variables that significantly explained self-esteem were the frequency of martial conflict, and the severity of martial conflict, in that order. These results suggest that in order for a child to grow up psychologically healthy, the role of parents is important, and suggest that the development of parent education programs for qualitative improvement of the parent-child relationships is needed.