Explaining the Role of Unresolved Marital Conflicts in the Development of Child Anxiety with Emphasis on Home Environmental Insecurity and Child Emotional Sensitivity
Keywords:
Marital conflict, child anxiety, home insecurity, emotional sensitivity, thematic analysis, family therapyAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to explain parents’ lived accounts of how unresolved marital conflicts contribute to the development and intensification of child anxiety, with particular emphasis on home insecurity and children’s emotional sensitivity.
Methods and Materials: This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. Participants were 22 parents living in Tehran who had children aged 7–12 years with parent-reported anxiety symptoms or referral history to family counseling centers. Participants were selected through purposive sampling while considering diversity in parent gender, child age, socioeconomic status, and type of marital conflict. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using NVivo 12 software. Data analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis procedure.
Findings: Data analysis led to the extraction of five main categories: persistence of unresolved marital conflicts and emotional suspension at home, insecurity and unpredictability of the family environment, child hypervigilance and emotional sensitivity, child involvement in parental conflict and perceived responsibility, and manifestations of anxiety in children’s daily functioning. Participants reported that children perceived signs of tension even when they did not directly witness parental arguments. Children reacted to changes in parental tone, silence, crying, withdrawal, or threats of separation through worry, somatic complaints, sleep disturbance, school-related anxiety, and increased dependence on parents.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that unresolved marital conflicts contribute to child anxiety not merely through direct exposure to parental arguments, but also through emotional insecurity, relational ambiguity, suspended tension, and the activation of children’s emotional sensitivity. Family-based interventions should therefore move beyond conflict reduction and focus on restoring emotional safety at home, strengthening constructive conflict resolution, protecting children from triangulation, and enhancing children’s emotion regulation capacities.
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