The research made by Dykeman discusses and analyses the main causes and outcomes of family conflicts and children’s disobedience at school. Family conflicts are one of the most painful and stressful situations in the life of every child. A conflict demonstrates personal failure, of course. In many cases, it is a courageous and healthy step forward in life. Many divorcing parents need to become more forgiving of themselves and allow themselves to be humanly imperfect. The true measure of people is not how often they stumble or make mistakes but how they recover afterward. Dykeman underlines that for a young child, divorce means the loss of family— the entity that provides a child with support, stability, security, and continuity in an often unpredictable world.
The research analyses behavior patterns and emotional responses to diverse 15 children whose parents separated. “The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the pre-referral tertiary intervention program in reducing acting out behaviors of students” (Dykeman 41). The author supposes that a child can be sad and felt a deep sense of loss—of family, security, even my daily routines and family traditions. As a child, a person feels responsible and blamed himself for his parents’ divorce. A variety of explanations has been put forward for these findings (Aron et al 2008).
The research is based on secondary and primary data analysis. The primary data was collected using a paired-samples t-test. This research is intended to contemplate and analyze two types of research and data collection – primary and secondary research. These types of research are used to collect the necessary and variegated information on the topic of a study and allow for a better understanding of the situation under discussion and proper conclusions to be made in its end. Primary and secondary research are the core ways of collecting data for Dykeman’s study. In order to conduct the study in a proper and correct way the Dykeman possesses the knowledge and abilities which allow collecting all the necessary information which is analyzed and structured in the research paper as a result. The primary research is based on a Conflict tactics Scale. Compared to peers, members of disadvantaged groups might appraise stressful encounters as more harmful or threatening, or they might possess limited coping resources (compare financial resources) or deficient coping skills. A related possibility, of course, is that groups reporting relatively more distress may experience some deficiency of social support process. Coping and social support represent an important sphere for exploring vulnerabilities to stressors that appear to underlie social findings (Byman and Burgess 1999).
Secondary research implies studying the information already collected concerning the topic – books, articles, published statistics, media, as well as personal documents which may be obtained, read, analyzed and then structured in order to make the theoretical basis for the research. And as for the primary data, it consists of social surveys – interviews and questionnaires as well as of personal observation of a process under discussion (if the researcher has the possibility to participate in a studied process or if one is the part of the organization considered and may comment on the research topic as an insider) (Coffey and Atkinson 1998).
The main limitations of the rese4arch are that it does not take into account one particular gender but selected 13 boys and 2 girls for analysis. It is known that boys and girls may react differently to diverse and show different behavior patents at schools. Also, the research analysis different ethnic groups: 8 Caucasians, Hispanics and Afro-Americans. It is understandable that collecting primary research data is possible only in the process of the study itself and cannot be done simply to exemplify the process as it is more difficult and requires serious research. The main problem of statistical analysis is sample size and selected participants. It would be more effective to analyze one gender, one racial group and one nationality.
In spite of the limitations in research sample, the author comes to conclusion that to avoid acting out problems, parents should anticipate or think ahead about their own likely responses during these difficult conversations. By doing so, parents could better manage their own sadness, guilt, and other feelings that made it more difficult to respond to their children’s feelings and reactions. Even though these conversations were hard, parents and children alike adjust better if these topics that everyone wanted to avoid could be talked about and made overt (Jacobson 82). For a young child, maintaining network relationships may become difficult as stressors diminish a person’s contribution to the relationship or increase the perceived costs to the network member. Rather they reflected rejection and isolation by others who saw them as deviant and unlikely to reciprocate help, as well as deficits or reluctance on the part of the neglectful mothers themselves. Sadly, there was some evidence from this study that the neglected children, too, may be stigmatized, being seen as inappropriate playmates by mothers of their neighborhood peers. Researchers found that many who had suffered a prolonged separation from their mother during infancy seemed well adjusted. Those who were maladjusted had experienced a particular kind of family breakup, namely, due to divorce in the family (Jacobson 92). Such experiences in themselves could be disturbing to the young child, over and above the separation. Therefore, perhaps the particular circumstance of separation is the factor which gives rise to permanent emotional damage, and not so much the mere fact of separation.
References
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., and Coups, E. (2008). Statistics for the behavioral and social sciences: A brief course. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Byman, A. and Burgess, R. (eds) (1999). Qualitative Research, London: Sage, 1999.
Coffey, A.. and Atkinson, P.A. (1998). Making Sense of Qualitative Data: Complementary Strategies, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
Dykeman, B. F. (2003). The effects of family conflict resolution on children’s classroom behavior. Journal of Instructional Psychology; 30 (1), ProQuest Education Journals pg. 41.