Marital conflicts from children's perspective

We investigated children's perspective about marital conflicts. Participants were 17 students from a public school from Porto Alegre (RS), of both sexes, gathered in two focus groups: one with 8 children (8-9 years old), and another with 9 adolescents (12-13 years old), who lived with their parents. Each group had a single meeting at school. The information collected was recorded, transcribed and its content analyzed from the emerging themes. In children's view, marital conflicts range from discussion to physical aggression, are recurrent, deal with any topic, and its expression is predominantly negative. Children recognize the occurrence of conflicts and state that do not always understand their causes, but suffer its consequences. Children adopt various strategies to deal with conflicts, from ignoring them to taking self-destructive attitudes. We conclude that the subjects are aware of their parents' marital conflicts and recognize its repercussions.