How parents handle everyday marital conflicts has a significant effect on how secure their children feel, which, in turn, significantly affects their future emotional adjustment.
"A useful analogy is to think about emotional security as a bridge between the child and the world," explained lead researcher Mark Cummings, Ph.D., professor and Notre Dame Chair in Psychology of the Psychology Department of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
The researchers based their report on two separate long-term studies of marital conflict and children.
The first study involved 226 parents and their 9- to-18-year-old children.
Researchers again found that marital conflict sets in motion events that led to later emotional insecurity and maladjustment.
Again, researchers controlled for any initial adjustment problems, further supporting the conclusion that marital conflict was related with children's emotional insecurity and adjustment problems.
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