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bystanders, passive weapons, communication channels, or as active participants to collect
evidence, spy, or communicate threats and insults. Only 5 percent of the parents reported that
they protected their children consistently from arguments or the behaviour following an argument
(i.e., depression). Children’s reactions to these conflicts differed depending on age. Younger
children had predominantly submissive distress responses and were more likely to try to control
the fight than older children. Two-thirds of all the children tried to avoid the dispute and one-
quarter showed aggressive distress responses. Again, it should be noted that these children
appear more distressed and more likely to become angry than children from non-disputing
families, but both groups attempt to control, ignore and avoid the dispute. According to Johnston
et al., children’s emotional and behavioural problems can be predicted by the amount of
involvement the child has in disputes, the degree of role reversal with parents, the amount of
disagreement between parents, and the duration of the dispute over the child.
There are some studies that go a step further, demonstrating that conflict, rather than
divorce per se, is the major determinant of children’s adjustment. For instance, Bishop and
Ingersoll (1989) found that marital conflict had a greater impact on adolescents’ self-concept
than family structure. Similarly, Mechanic and Hansell (1989) found that family conflict had
more direct effects on long-term changes in well-being (i.e., depression, anxiety, physical
symptoms, self-esteem) than divorce, current separation from parents, or parental death.
Furthermore, they found that adolescents in intact families with high levels of conflict had poorer
well-being than those experiencing divorce with low levels of conflict. A recent survey of 9,816
secondary school students in the Netherlands indicates that the level of well being of children
living in single mother families is higher than that of students living in two parent families with
much parental conflict, the well being of children living in single mother families with no
parental conflict and with a great deal of contact with the departed father is lower than that of
children living in two parent families without parental conflict and finally, the degree of parental
conflict after divorce is more important for the well being of the children than the degree of
contact with the departed father (Dronkers, 1996).
Using data from the United States National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, Jekielek
(1996) found that both parental conflict and marital disruption were associated with decreases in
the children’s well being but children who remain in the high conflict environments do worse
than children who experienced high conflict but whose parents had divorced at least two years
previously. The results suggest that parental divorce following high conflict may actually
improve the well being of children relative to a high conflict status. Using a 12 year longitudinal
study, Amato, Loomis & Booth (1995) also found that the consequences of parental divorce
depend on the degree of parental conflict prior to divorce. In high conflict families, children had
higher levels of well being as young adults if their parents divorced than if they stayed together.
In low conflict families, however, children had higher levels of well being if their parents stayed
together than if they divorced. In marriages that did not end in divorce, parental conflict was
negatively associated with the well being of the children.
On the other hand, some researcher have argued that while conflict is an important factor
the relationship between conflict and children’s post-divorce adjustment is neither universal,