What kind of problems do children experience from marital distress?
Research shows that children of high conflict divorcing families are often pre-occupied with surviving in the emotionally volatile climate of their divided family, are confused about their loyalties and unsure of what is true. This state of mind is one of acute anxiety for the child, whose capacities for everyday learning, thinking, interacting and playing can be sorely diminished by their internal struggles (Johnston, 1997). The content of parents’ arguments is an important variable – children are more distressed when the fight is about them (Grych & Fincham, 1993). Children from high conflict marital situations are especially vulnerable to excessive aggression, defiance, delinquency, poor relationships with parents and poor peer skills (Kline, Johnston and Tschann, 1991;Grych and Finchman, 1990; Camara and Resnick, 1989; Emery and O’Leary,1984). Diminished academic performance has also been noted by many researchers (eg. see Wierson, Forehand and McCombs, 1988). Children from high co
