Parents who argue and fight in front of their children can cause them serious harm, according to a new study from Cardiff University. Read on and know why you should never do this again.
ABC News reports that the 3-year study involves over 300 families. The researchers conversed with the children about their parents fights. They also showed them film of adults that are arguing in various ways. The results of the study show that even though the kids are not involved in the fights if parents fight in the wrong way, the children's emotional stability are threatened.
"When children are threatened at an emotional level they're showing increases in negative symptoms such as depression, anxiety, aggression, hostility," Dr. Gordon Harold, a researcher at Cardiff University in Cardiff, Wales said. A child who has witnessed his parents' fights may be withdrawn or quiet or may likewise become difficult and aggressive.
Harold said that the physically or aggressive fights and arguments concerned with or involved a child as well as such intense quarrels are worst for children.
Parents.com has recently reported another study that was printed in the Journal of Family Psychology. It shows that family fights can change children's brains. The kids who see the conflict responded more strongly to the angry-looking couples.
"They're being watchful in the home in the same way that they're watching for angry faces in the research setting," Alice Schermerhorn, author of the study and assistant professor in UVM's Department of Psychological Science. "The pattern suggests children from high-conflict homes, by training their brains to be vigilant, process signs of interpersonal emotion, either anger or happiness, differently than children from low-conflict homes."
A parenting expert suggested that if a parent is upset with his partner, he can leave the room or count to 10. On the other hand, if the fights inevitably happen in front of the children, you can explain to your children that sometimes fights happen yet both of you love each other. Tell them too that it's not their fault then find ways to make-up in front of them, too.
