If, instead of being resolved by the spouses, however, marital anxiety moves around the triangles of the family system, it may eventually center on one of the children. Being the center of an anxious focus guarantees a high degree of anxiety in that person, and eventually symptoms—physical, mental, emotional, or social—will appear. Symptoms of the focused child include underachievement at school, school phobias, depression, hyperactivity, psychosis, addictions, peer-relationship problems, rebelliousness, and many others.
