Effect of Family Conflict on The Behavior of Nursing School Students

Background: Family conflicts, especially between the father and mother, affect the physical, social, mental health of school students, and this will negatively affect their behaviors, their future relationships, and also their academic progress at school or college. Aim: This study aimed at assessing the effect of family conflicts on the behavior of nursing school students. Study design: A descriptive design used to conduct this study. Setting: The study was conducted at 16 schools of secondary nursing school affiliated to Ministry of Health in Cairo governorate. Subjects: A simple random sample consisted of 252 nursing students. Study Tools : Two tools were used in the study1 st to assess demographic data, perception of student to family conflict, risk factors of family conflict. and youth self-report, and 2 nd to assess students’ health problems, and academic achievement. Results: The results proved more than half of the study sample of nursing school students have 16 years, less than quarter of them had high perception of family conflicts, while the main risk factors of family conflicts were poor communication between parents for less than quarter and financial distress for more than half Regarding students’ health problems, less than half of students suffered from trouble paying attention and concentrating, more than half of them feel tired and exhausted for no reason, and more than half had headache. Also, it presents that half and two third and less than half of students had very bad level of internalizing, and externalizing behavior, and social skills respectively. Conclusion: The study results concluded that there was a highly significant negative correlation between behavior and social problems of students and frequency of family conflict with P value ˂ 0.001, while insignificant correlation between students’ physical health problems and types of family conflicts for all items. Recommendation: Develop a counseling program for students about conflict resolution strategies and enable them to adapt more to family conflicts.