Here’s yet another good reason to learn how to do conflict better: Your children aren’t as resilient to parental conflict as you might hope. There are long-term effects, even up to one year later from a single dispute they witness.
In a press release about new research reported in the journal Child Development, it’s noted that “It didn’t matter whether the adults disagreed in openly hostile ways or appeared indifferent during the arguments. Both ways of managing conflict were linked with higher than expected distress in children that lasted even one year later.”
You can read more about the research in
Parental Conflict Produces More than Fleeting Distress for Children.