How children will cope with their parent’s relationship breaking down is predicated to a very large extent on how the conflict is handled by the parents. A destructive conflict which continues for a number of years will have highly detrimental long term effects on children. On the other hand, a constructive conflict (not a contradiction in terms) i.e.,a conflict resolved in a mature and reflective manner will minimise the effects on the children and can also be highly instructive for the children in helping their understanding of how conflicts can be resolved in an effective manner.
