The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among parental conflicts perceived by children, children's daily hassles, and their stress coping behaviors.
For that purpose, 410 children attending the fifth and sixth grades in two elementa...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among parental conflicts perceived by children, children's daily hassles, and their stress coping behaviors.
For that purpose, 410 children attending the fifth and sixth grades in two elementary schools in Busan City were surveyed. The measurement tools included the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale(CPIC) developed by Grych et al.(1992) and tested for validity by Gwon Yeong-ok and Lee Jeong-deok(1997), the questionnaire by Seo Yeong-mi(1998) based on the School Children's Daily Hassles Scale developed by Min Ha-yeong and Yu Ahn-jin(1998) with the teacher-related items excluded, and the revised version of the Children's Stress Coping Behaviors Scale developed by Min Ha-yeong and Yu Ahn-jin(1998). The data were analyzed with SPSS statistics program and tested with Cronbach's α, Pearson's correlation, multiple regression analysis, and simple regression analysis.
The findings were as follows:
First, the relations between the parental conflicted perceived by children and childrens daily hassles were investigated. As a result, there were significant positive correlations; the parent-related and friends-isolation stress were significantly related positive to all the subareas of parental conflicts. There were significant positive relations between childrens friends-conflict stress and all the subareas of parental conflicts except for self-blame and stability, and between their study stress with all the subareas of parental conflicts except for self-blame. Of the subareas of the parental conflicts, the frequency, intensity, problem solving, and perceived threat were influential to the children's parent-related stress, while the frequency and perceived threat to their friends-isolation stress. In addition, the perceived threat and coping efficiency of parental conflicts affected their friends-conflicts stress, while the frequency, problem solving, perceived threat, triangle relationships, and stability their study stress.
Second, the relations between children's daily hassles and stress coping behaviors were examined. As a result, there were significant positive correlations in all the areas, and children turned out to adopt diverse coping behaviors at the same time under daily hassle situations. They used passive, offensive, and avoidance coping behaviors a lot to deal with their parent-related and friends-isolation stress, passive and offensive coping behaviors a lot to deal with their friends-conflicts stress, and active, passive, offensive, and social support seeking coping behaviors a lot to deal with their study stress.
Thus it's clear that parental conflicts served as critical stressors of not only parents-related stress but also all the daily hassles of children. Considering that children do use many different coping behaviors simultaneously under all the stress situations, it's implied that smooth resolutions of parental conflicts can have positive impacts on childrens stress and stress coping behaviors.