Marital Discord Essay

Pam Leo stated, “Let’s raise children that won’t have to recover from their childhood”. Research continues to prove that marital discord in families with children leave a lasting impact on their offspring. Studies have shown that children who witness their parents arguing are negatively affected psychologically and behaviorally. In young children, how they regulate their emotional state and peer interactions seems to suffer the most from parental conflict. Adult children have a hard time recovering later in life if they grew up in a frequent hostile environment. Marital discord has been proven to negatively affect all children whether they be in preschool or into their adult years. Sullivan et al. states, “Emotional security theory hypothesizes

Those childhood years are some of the most influential and impactful seasons of their lives that was covered in arguments. Amato and Sobolewski found that, “parental discord was positively associated with adult offspring’s psychological distress 12 years later (901). The adult children had not been able to shake those memories of their parents’ constant quarrels and had become a part of who they were down the road. Growing up in both parental divorce and high-conflict two-parent families appear to be linked with long-term decrements in children’s psychological adjustment (Amato and Sobolewski 901). In adulthood, Amato and Sobolewski shared the three processes that mediate long term effects of marital discord: socioeconomic attainment, relationship instability, and the quality of relationships between offspring and parents (902). Parental discord interferes with children’s educational attainment, leaves them with inadequate interpersonal skills, and a history of unstable intimate relationships, or undermines close ties with their parents and kin, children’s distress is likely to be reinforced or even amplified after reaching adulthood (Amato and Sobolewski 902). Amato and Sobolewski support Grych and Finchman that overt conflict between parents is a direct stressor for children whether younger or older (903). Parents that fight frequently, tend to display less warmth toward their children and discipline them more harshly (Amato and Sobolewski 903). For these reasons, children in high-conflict households are at increased risks for antisocial behavior, anxiety, depression, and difficulty in concentrating (Amato and Sobolewski 903). All of the previously listed illnesses are things that influence school performance and work performance once