Parental Role Conflicts: A Concept Analysis Using Walker and Avant Method

The family is the most important factor for the socialization and development of the child, and parents are one of the most powerful influences in their children's lives. During this process, the role structure is formed. A balanced role structure can benefit family solidarity. Parental role conflicts are one of the risk factors for children's mental health, behavioral and emotional disorders. When children are exposed to parental conflicts; They feel emotionally insecure. This study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the concept of parental role conflict.

This study was a concept analysis in which Walker and Avant's 8-step concept analysis method was used. An extensive search was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL Psych info Scopus and Science Web of databases with keywords family conflict, parents, role, father-child relationship, and mothers in the range of 2010 to 2022, and 13 related studies were extracted.

Parental conflict creates issues such as emotional health problems, social problems, and physical and mental health disorders in children. Concepts such as role ambiguity, role expectations, mother's role pressure, inefficient spouse, family system disorder, and family process disorder are concepts that are often used instead of parental role conflicts.

Role conflict occurs when the expectations of multiple roles are inconsistent with each other. Inappropriate relationship between parents leads to children's incompatibility. This can be intra-personal, group, or organizational. Solving parental conflicts and having a positive, warm, and compassionate relationship have an impact on children's mental health. Considering that this concept is part of the standard nursing diagnoses, nurses can propose basic solutions for problems using the bedside nursing process.