| More than 10 million children are exposed to different forms of parental conflict every year including divorce, parental alienation, and domestic violence (Van Horn & Lieberman, 2004). The negative effects of such exposure on social and emotional development are consistent with individuals who have insecure attachment styles. Attachment research originally proposed by John Bowlby has primarily focused on studying how the quality of the early relationship between caregiver and child affects the overall social and emotional development of that child. The current study sought to go beyond the parent-child relationship and examine how conflict within the interparental relationship affects emotional and social development. This was done by assessing the correlation between perceptions of interparental conflict (IPC) and participants' anxiety and avoidance in close relationships, as well as correlations between IPC and self-identified attachment style in 140 adult participants (34 male, 106 female). Results suggest a significant correlation between IPC and anxiety in close relationships, and a marginally insignificant correlation between IPC and avoidance. The results did not find a significant correlation between IPC and attachment style. |
