A Child Divided In The Quiet Room

The Quiet Room portrays a child suffering from an unspecified anxiety disorder. As her anxiety level rises relative to her parents escalating arguments, she stops speaking to them and retreats into her own world, reminiscing on what she feels are happier times (when she was aged 3), and she feels her parents enjoyed her company as well as each other’s. This film reinforces class content regarding childhood development, and how stressors can impact functioning, causing maladaptive coping mechanisms, including regression, as seen evidenced in this film.

This film places domestic discord into the unique (and sometimes oversimplified) perspective of a child. The child is keenly aware of the animosity; however, the actual details of the marital discord occurring between her parents are essentially irrelevant to her life. For the child, the previous, happier memories that she has are fantasized and idealized, remembered in vivid colors as ones of tranquility. The solution to her parents fights and impending separation is easy to her: Don’t talk about splitting up, and just don’t do it. On the other hand,

To deal with the stress of her parents fighting, and eventually separating, the little girl in the movie stopped talking. Not everyone who goes through their parent’s separating is going to stop talking, some may become angry and act out, or some may talk about their feelings and come to terms with it. The behavior and capability to deal with the situation is dependent on coping mechanisms. Though she did have some positive coping mechanisms, such as guided imagery and coloring, her main coping mechanism was maladaptive. It is also important to take note of how your behavior can impact others. Hearing her parents arguing was an external stressor which lead to her inability to cope and her