Family Conflict Affects Child Social Development

1684 Words4 Pages

Family plays an important role in the positive development of a child’s mind, behavior and in general as a whole. Everyone wants a stable environment whether at home or outside. Stability in life does not last all the time due to stress, conflict or any other issues that sometimes can’t be avoided. Conflict occurs with or without us realizing it. It can happen in our daily lives from the smallest to the biggest issues either with our family, friends, strangers, colleagues or just about anyone we may encounter. Conflict is a struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resources in which the aims of the opponents are to neutralize, injure or eliminate the rivals (Coser, 1967). There are always advantages and disadvantages when conflict occurs, it can either strengthen or even weaken a particular situation. Family conflicts are just like other conflicts happening around us. It can affect us in many ways as an individual. A number of past studies revealed that children and adolescents showed a high potential of externalizing behavior problems, particularly when they became witnesses or victims of conflicts in their family environment (Hornor, 2005).

The aim of this research is to investigate if family conflict affects child social development. Theory that can relate to this research proposal is social learning theory by Albert Bandura, 1977. Bandura explained that people learn new things and behaviors by observing other also known as observational learning, where children learn and observe people behaviors by imitating the act later on. For example, in the famous ‘Bobo doll’ studies, an adult acted violently towards the Bobo doll and right after the child saw it, the child act the same thing just like what the child ...

... middle of paper ...

...pdf

Fomby, P., & Osborne, C. (2008). The relative effects of family instability and mother/partner conflict on children’s externalizing behavior. Retrieved from http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP08-07-FF.pdf

Peterson, L., & Zill, N. (1986). Marital disruption, parent-child relationships, and behavior problems in children. 48(02), 295-307. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/352397?uid=3738672&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=47698773131477

Piers , V., Harris, B., & Herzberg, S. (2012). Piers-harris children's self-concept scale, second edition (piers-harris 2). Retrieved from http://portal.wpspublish.com/portal/page?_pageid=53,112628&_dad=schema=PORTAL

Tsai, Y. (2008). Work-family conflict,positive spillover,and emotions among asian american working mothers. Retrieved from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60855/1/athy_1.pdf

More about Family Conflict Affects Child Social Development

Open Document