One of
most important factors influencing kids' adjustments to their parents' separation or divorce is level of parental hostility. How bad or how well children go through divorce depends on how situation is handled.To give you concrete idea on what parental hostility will bring to your child, a list of several studies conducted by different researchers relative to hostility between parent and it's impact to child's development are herein presented.
One study conducted by Raschke and Raschke (1979) about parental hostility concluded that inter-parental conflict in divorced families had most harmful effect on children's self-concept; and conflict in general had a negative effect on child development.
Emery (1982) in his research concluded that open hostility over time, in both divorced and married families, causes more harm to children than does indirect hostility.
Shaw and Emery (1987) in their studies found that higher rate of externalized hostility between parents witnessed by children, higher level of distress for children. When compared with other family stresses, parental conflict appeared to have most negative effect on children, and open conflict did more harm that internalized feeling of anger.
Camera and Resnick (1989) studies on divorced families concluded that inter-parental hostility and conflict, when exhibited through verbally aggressive and physical abusive behavior, had extremely negative results for children, who in turn often showed aggressive and abusive behavior in their own social lives.
Johnston, Gonzalez and Campbell (1987) study concluded that high levels of hostility between parents resulted, at early stages, in high levels of depression, withdrawal and aggressive behavior in their children. Longer periods of inter-parental hostility became accurate predictors of long-term adjustment difficulties for children.
