Uncovered coping strategies adopted by children living in homes with marital conflicts for their own survival

Abstract

Research indicates that marital conflict pertains to three particular dimensions of communication including affect, conflict behaviours and conflict management and these affect conflict choice of management strategies. This paper explored the problems and coping strategies of children from homes with marital conflicts in Tanga City, Tanzania. An exploratory technique with multiple research methods was used to facilitate the study. 100 social workers, couples, class teachers and/or school counselors informed the study. The study employed purposive, stratified, simple random and snowball sampling techniques with survey questionnaires and interview to recruit participants and data collection. Problems facing children living in homes with marital conflicts are discussed. The result suggest that newlywed couples and those contemplating marriage should obtain marital counselling in order to build strong family relations that can reduce family life tensions, attending family training which developing marital problem-solving skills. The theoretical and practical implications of the problems facing children living in homes with marital conflicts in Tanzania are discussed.

Key words: coping strategies, children suffering, marital anxiety, sources of marital conflicts, marital conflict.