The present study focused on the potentially adverse consequences for children of marital conflict from the children's perspectives. The relationship between children's perception of marital conflict and their behavior problems was investigated. Also ...
The present study focused on the potentially adverse consequences for children of marital conflict from the children's perspectives. The relationship between children's perception of marital conflict and their behavior problems was investigated. Also children's perception of marital conflict and their behavior problems were examined according to demographic variables (child's sex and age, parents' educational level, father's occupation, mother's employment, mother's age and family income).
The subjects of this study were 487 children of the fourth and sixth grade of elementary schools in Seoul, and their parents. The children's perception of Marital Conflict Scale and Child Behavior Checklist were administered to children and their parents respectively.
The major findings of this study were as follows:
1. The children's perception of marital conflict were not high in general. But perceived threat dimension and coping efficacy dimension were relatively higher compared to the others. Also the children's perception of marital conflict were significantly different according to child's age and sex, parents' educational level, father's occupation, mother's age and family income.
2. Behavior problems of children were low in general. But children's anxious behavior and hyperactivities were higher than the other behavior problems. Behavior problems of children were not different according to child's age and sex, but were significantly different according to parents' educational level, father's occupation, family income and mother's age.
3. Behavior problems of children varied significantly depending on the degree of the children's perception of marital conflict. Children who perceived frequency and intensity of marital conflict high, who perceived marital conflict not resolved well, who perceived the content of marital conflict concerned themselves, who blamed themselves for marital conflict, who felt threatened during marital conflict and felt uncomfortable between parents under conflict, showed higher behavior problems.
4. According to child's age and sex, the correlations between children's perception of marital conflict and their behavior problems were significantly different. Girls showed significantly higher correlations between marital conflict and immature behavior, anxious behavior or withdrawal behavior than boys. And 12-year-old children showed significantly higher corrlations between marital conflict and aggressive behavior, anxious behavior or withdrawal behavior than 10-year-old children.
5. Among the related variables which affect behavior problems of children, child's sex, frequency dimension and self blame dimension were the influential factors in general. Moreover, the frequency of marital conflict was influential in all domains of behavior problems of children. These results show that the frequency of marital conflict is a very important variable to be considered. However it is important to guard against an oversimplified view of the impact of the frequency of conflict. Frequency may interact with other dimensions of conflict, such as intensity, destructiveness or resolution.