Children's understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship

Children's understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship w as investigated in 60 children of 5, 7, and 9 years old. Age differences we re hypothesized in four areas of children's understanding of marital confli ct and the marital relationship, based on the development between 5 and 9 y ears of age of children's abilities to (a) analyse complex sequences of beh avior in terms of the mental states of protagonists and (b) integrate multi ple social roles. The four areas investigated were: conceptions of marital conflict, conflict resolution, family triangulation, and integration of the spousal and parental roles. Children were read stories involving family in teractions. Open-ended questions were asked about their understanding of th ese interactions and a coding scheme was devised that reflected theoretical concepts. Nine-year-olds differed from 5-year-olds on all aspects of their understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship, and 7-year -olds showed levels of understanding between 5- and 9-year-olds. Younger ch ildren were less likely than older children to explain marital conflict in terms of the divergent goals of each parent: to understand conflict resolut ion as dependent on one person changing their beliefs or goals, to understa nd that parents were simultaneously spouses and parents and to understand t he nature of triangulation. Marital conflict is interpreted very differentl y by children of different ages.