The Effects of Marital Conflict on Children’s Aggression

• Christina Sposato, Psychology, University of Delaware
• Emily Grim, Psychology, University of Delaware

• Mary Dozier, Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware

The evidence pertaining to the effects of marital conflict on children is mixed. Marital conflict has been defined by many sources as the general antagonism between partners, taking its most common forms in emotion, physical and financial disputes. Children are considered to have exposure to marital conflict when the child sees, hears, is directly involved in, or is a victim to the aftermath of the conflict. In our research, marital conflict includes anyone with whom the primary caregiver is involved with and is present in the child’s life, regardless of marital status. We predicted that a child’s exposure to marital conflict would increase aggressiveness. Using a video-game task at age 10, aggression data were collected regarding their proactive and reactive behavior. Proactive aggression is seen as unprovoked and directed behavior. Reactive aggression is defensive and works as a response. Punishment to the opponent after having been wronged themself was identified as reactive aggression, while punishment to the opponent without a preceding trigger was measured as proactively aggressive. Reactive aggression was measured by the total number of seconds the subject held down a pedal which “zapped” another child’s progress throughout the task. The parent of the child was asked to complete an adapted version of the Braiker and Kelley Marital Conflict Scale, also completed while the child was 10 years old. Our research showed a positive correlation between marital conflict and aggression, with higher marital conflict predicting higher child reactive aggression. No significant results were found between conflict and proactive aggression. Literature has shown that higher aggression levels in childhood predicts a higher likelihood of domestic violence in their adult relationships. Identifying this effect of aggression can help to limit a repeated cycle of relationship violence within generations of families. Future research should aim to test the long-term effects of reactive aggression and the ways marital discord plays a role in behavioral development.