Parent Conflict : Managing Sibling Conflict

Studies have been conducted and examined whether parent – child conflict during the middle childhood years varied among families and if conflict had an impact on children’s respect towards authority figures. Children’s behaviors in parent – child interactions , it has been shown that there is cultural differences in parents backgrounds and parents behaviors . Authoritarian parenting practices have been found, in many studies, to be more common among ethnic minorities, while not showing associated negative child outcomes typically found within American children raised within same parenting styles. (e.g. Garcia Coll et. Al., 1995).

Every year, thousands of families welcome a new baby into their home. New parents today only want what is best for their children. The upcoming years are spent watching Disney movies, going to parks, taking vacations, and taking countless photographs of the new infant. As the child grows older, parents begin to develop their own style of parenting. Almost all those children brought into the world get to experience what it is to have a loving family, but for a small percentage, life is not so easy. While every parent’s intentions are the same, the parenting style they develop can have a great impact on their child. Parents with a more controlling parenting style often raise children with less confidence in themselves, a fear to express

Each child has his or her own personality. Typically the firstborn is a natural leader, while the last is always the baby, but what about the overlooked middle child? The middle child can sometimes feel lost in the crowd when it comes to family dynamics. They crave their parent’s attention and are willing to do anything to believe they have it, but immediately close up when it comes to conflict, they become people pleasers. They will do anything to make their parents, or others, happy. This makes the middle child a skilled peacemaker and negotiator (Varma, 2013). They are amazing listeners because of the fact they hate conflict,

Dumlao, Rebecca. Botta, Renee.”Family communication patterns and the conflict styles young adults use with their fathers.” Communication Quarterly. Vol. 48 no. 2 Spring 2000: 174-189.

Many factors can affect the effectiveness of relational maintenance within sibling relationships, such as effort to maintain relationships, age of siblings, and how related they are among other things. In romantic relationships, individuals may experience a higher level of satisfaction within a relationship if their partners’ use of relational maintenance tactics compares favorably to their own (Dainton, 2000). It is possible for this to also be the case for adult sibling relationships since these would be life-long relationships that one would be born into instead of relationships one would form by choice and at any point of their lives. However, those involved in romantic relationships may not experience a greater level of relational satisfaction from relational maintenance the longer there are involved in a relationship. Whether or not this is also the case for adult siblings is an interesting question as there are a variety of factors that can positively or negatively affect their relationships over the course of time. These would include involvement with each other’s families, geographic distance, and continued involvement with parents among other factors. The current amount of relational satisfaction between adult siblings can be compared to that of when they were children; and can also be compared between adult siblings at different stages of their adult life.

Personally, everyone has experienced some sort of family conflict in their everyday life. There are numerous effects that cause all these conflicts in our families, but what provokes the conflicts to occur? What happens when a divorce occurs in our families? My really great friend from Earlimart Elementary School has been in multiple family conflicts and blames herself every time her parents get into a verbal fight. People shouldn’t blame themselves if the conflict doesn’t apply to them, for example, my best friend’s parents would fight over money. Obviously, this conflict absolutely had anything to do with her; therefore, but it made her feel guilty because she couldn’t do anything about it. She suffered several health issues that caused

When looking at relationships, whether marital, parent-child, sibling, or peer relationships, they each enforce different demands through interactions with one another (Aksan, Goldsmith, Essex, & Vandell, 2013). One relationship that has the longest interaction is sibling relationships, it is arguably the longest relationship an individual experiences and it can continue through the lifespan (Cicirelli, 1995). As the siblings grow their relationship becomes more egalitarian than other family relationships (Cicirelli, 1995) and it becomes more voluntary (Floyd, 1995). Thus, while looking at families most people grow up with a sibling. The relationship between those siblings can be marked with rivalry and conflict, nevertheless it can also be the closest and most intimate relationship that person has throughout their life (Buhrmester & Furman, 1990). However, siblings are among the least studied relationships when compared to parent-sibling relationships and children’s peer relationships (Spitze & Trent, 2006). This could be due to researchers suggesting that siblings will have little contact or influence on each other after childhood (Cicirelli, 1995).

Consequently, communication styles of parenting and marital conflict ensued when parents were triggered by their incompetence in handling the behavioral difficulties of the adopted child. Authors Chasnoff, Farina, & Leifer found there were strong correlations between levels of insecure attachment in children, who displayed behavior difficulties resulting from institutionalized care, and parenting stress leading to externalizing blame onto the child (Chasnoff, Farina, & Leifer, 2004). “Rinaldo believed Darya was causing the disruption in the family. His anger and rage was frequently triggered by her manipulative behaviors” (L. Brutoco, personal communication, October 10, 2017). To maintain homeostasis within the marriage, the father focused his frustration onto the child with significant behavior difficulties.

My older brother and I have been living with each other since we came to Oregon. In our childhood, both my mother and father used to work outside, so we were alone for the most of the day. No surprise, it was not a day that we didn’t fight with each other. As being kid, it was inevitable and natural for two brothers to fight and argue with each other. However, now that we are grown up, still we argue with each other quite often.

The main instrument used to measure progress in the Parent and Youth Mediation Program, which is intended to reduce conflict and enhance communication between adolescents and their parents, was the Parent Adolescent Questionnaire. The assessment examines the relationships between parents and adolescents, enabling the clinician to plan effective modes of treatment interventions through understanding the many dimensions of the parent-adolescent relationship. The assessment, based in behavioral family systems therapy, organizes information into the domains of overt conflict, skills deficits, beliefs and family structure. This enables the clinician to emphasize problem-solving and communication skills, cognitive restructuring of extreme beliefs and distorted thinking, and identify problems in family functioning in later interventions. Additionally, the scales assess global distress and conflict in multiple areas, including communication, problem solving, school, siblings, and maladaptive

In addition, these sibling are affected by the separation between both parent and it is difficult for them, because they are drawn into two separate part. Academically and emotionally they are be in a stage where they are confused about the family issues

About 50 years ago, Diana Baumrind conducted a study on 100 preschool children from California and found that parents differ on four important aspects of their parenting. First was on how parents express warmth; while some were affectionate, others were cold and critical. Next was on strategies for disciplining the children, Baumrind concluded that parents vary in how they punish, persuade, criticize, and explain. The third aspect was how children and parents communicate, some parents will listen patiently to their child however, some will demand silence from children. Expectations for maturity was the last aspect of caregiving that parents seemed to differ on; parents had varying expectations for their children to be responsible and have self control (Berger, 2016).

“Control reflects the center of power or the source of decision making in the relationship and has a continuum that ranges from parental to child control. Types of parental power indicate the methods parents use to exert their influence on the child” (Vargas, Busch-Rossnagel, Montero-Sieburth, and Villarruel, 2000).

Sibling rivalry and the factors that cause it is an intense topic. Bruno Bettelheim is one of the many writers who discuss the topic and how it is created into the households of many families. Bettelheim states “While all children at time suffer greatly from sibling rivalry, parents seldom sacrifice one of their children to the others, nor do they condone the other children’s persecuting of them”. Some children crave the attention of their parents, and when it is given to a sibling, the other child feels mistreated.

problem with most families is obviously parent-adolescent conflict. Adolescence is a period of increasing parent-child conflict and conflicts are thought to be rife and common during this development phase. 3 In the puberty, Parents have the totally different interpretations of the conflicts against adolescents. Parents notice the disagreements caused from morality,