1. One major source of family conflict is within the area of finances--specifically, the lack of enough money to pay bills, maintain the mortgage or rent, buy sufficient food and other necessities and have any remaining money for recreation. job or career may contribute to conflict within a family.

2. While mutual agreement on the subject of child discipline is crucial, the lack of consensus opens up another potential area for family conflict.

3. Another cause of family conflict is the inevitable rivalry that occurs between siblings.

1. Family stages often cause conflicts. These include learning to live as a new couple (cohabiting or married), having the first baby and any subsequent children, sending a child to school, dealing with adolescence and experiencing the passage of young persons into adulthood. Each of these stages has innumerable possibilities for conflicts.

2. Through time, the needs, values and opinions of family members can change and create conflicts. Change can occur between spouses, between parents and children, between siblings, between nuclear families and in-laws, and among extended family members. Expanding on some of the causes of conflicts, one of the most common is money. The conflict can be not having enough money to meet expenses, competition for control of the money between spouses or partners, and disagreements about how to spend money.

3. Disagreements about types of child discipline cause conflicts. Parents can become polarized into the good parent and the bad parent, or the disciplinarian and the comforter. Such divisions are unhealthy for parents and children.