The association between constructive and destructive conflict and children’s (age three)
externalizing behaviors was examined utilizing the Building Strong Families (BSF) data set. The
study included 3,328 mothers and 3,148 fathers reporting on conflict behavior, and mother’s
reports on children’s externalizing behaviors. My hypotheses indicated that the more
constructive conflict, the less externalizing behaviors exhibited while the more destructive
conflict, the more externalizing behaviors shown by the children. The majority of the literature
demonstrated similar results to my hypotheses, however primarily focusing on mother’s conflict
rather than the father’s conflict methods. Similarly, there was little focus on constructive conflict
in the literature. Younger children (age three) were of interest for this study due to the lack of
research involving these variables and this age group. The specific emotions theory was utilized
to shape and inform my hypotheses. The results for this study supported my hypothesis
concerning destructive conflict, but rejected the other discussing constructive conflict. Mothers’
correlations of conflict methods with externalizing behaviors were statistically significant while
the fathers’ correlations were not. These analyses indicate further research of constructive
conflict and its effects on younger children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/614180 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | WIRTH, ABIGAIL DRU |
| Contributors | Barnett, Melissa |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Thesis |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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