Mediate Michigan

Family conflict is a huge factor negatively affecting the growth of children under the age of 5. For children that young, family turbulence can interrupt or delay important developmental stages. Even if a small child has reached a significant growth benchmark, it is not unusual for a child to regress when exposed to ongoing, intense family clashes. For example, a child who is potty-trained may regress to diapers or start bed wetting. It gets even more complicated when highly conflicted parents maintain a family environment where the very young child doesn’t feel safe or protected by the adults who are supposed to nurture him/her. In cases that extreme, the imprint on the child’s development may last for years and require therapeutic interventions at some point.

via Claire N. Barnes, MA: Family Conflict and Children.