Family Communication as a Mediator of Child Adjustment to Divorce

Abstract

Reduced family conflict, consistency in roles and parenting, and limited negative life changes seem to be particularly important variables in promoting children's adjustment to divorce.

The impact of family functioning on child adjustment was investigated in a sample of 22 recently separated or divorced families with a total of 32 children. A series of multiple regression analyses using factors on the Family Assessment Device to predict Child Behavior Checklist scores indicated that family functioning is a significant predictor of children's Externalizing behavior problems. The Communication factor accounted for a significant portion of unique variance in the externalizing scores that was unaccounted for by the other factors. When separated parents can communicate with each other to co-parent their children, as well as communicate affective limit-setting messages to their children, the children exhibit less behavioral problems.     

Delayed Parental Divorce: How Much Do Children Benefit?

This study compares children who experienced divorce in childhood with those who were young adults when their parents divorced to differentiate between long‐term effects of divorce resulting from preexisting factors, including the child's behavioral problems and psychological status as well as the family's economic circumstances, and those resulting from divorce itself. We used National Child Development Study data on 11,409 British children born in 1958 and followed up until age 33. Children's long‐term welfare appears to be linked both to conditions preceding and following the divorce event. The results point to some limitations of existing studies on divorce and suggest caution in drawing conclusions about average effects of divorce. The impact of divorce appears to be a complex blend of selection and socialization.     

Reconfigured Everyday Lives of Children from Divorced-Parent Families in Singapore

With the termination of a marriage, children involved inevitably experience dramatic changes in different facets of their lives. This article makes use of narrative accounts of divorced single parents to investigate how their marital dissolution has impacted and changed their children's lives. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 Singaporean divorced parents. Within the policy and social context of Singapore society, I highlight transformations in three specific aspects of the children's lives: one, the reconfigurations of familial relationships and formation of a new family unit; two, the creation of and adaptation to new family practices and routine; three, the adoption of new social identity following parental divorce. This article hopes to present a more nuanced understanding of the divorce experience by emphasizing both the precarious and productive aspects in the children's lives, contra to the existing divorce literature that typically focuses on the former.     

A Prospective Study of Behavioural Disturbance in Children Who Subsequently Experience Parental Divorce

This study examines changes in children's behaviour as a function of parental divorce. As part of a large scale general population study on the effects of marital disharmony on children, 139 children from the general population were followed up from a previous study. These children and their mothers were interviewed first between 1979 and 1982 (time 1) and then followed up between 1984 and 1986 (time 2). Between the time 1 interview and the time 2 interview, 16 children's parents had separated or divorced. This paper deals with the mothers' report of changes in the behaviour of these children between time 1 and time 2 as a function of their parents' divorce, and compares this with changes in children's behaviour whose parents live in disharmonious (N = 40) or harmonious homes (N = 50). Children's reports of their own behaviour at time 2 are also presented. The data show that children in disharmonious homes and children whose parents subsequently divorce show higher levels of disturbance than children in harmonious homes. Children whose parents subsequently divorce show their disturbance prior to the divorce. Children's coping strategies in response to divorce were also investigated and and an association was found between children's behavioural problems and (a) self-blame and (b) not having friends whose parents had divorced.     

The Effects of Parental Divorce: A Culture-Specific Challenge for Young Adults in South Korea

Extensive research into the offspring of divorced parents has indicated associations between parental divorce and developmental outcomes for young adults. Nevertheless the impact of cultural variation on the lives of young people with divorced parents has been neglected. Qualitative research using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to examine the experiences of six Korean adults of divorced parents, who detailed the impact of parental divorce on their lives and told us how their feelings toward their parents and their own ideas about family formation had been reevaluated. Overall, participants expressed concerns in common with other children of divorce and concerns specific to their Confucian cultural context, namely ambivalent feelings toward their parents' divorce, confusion about traditional filial piety, and a view of the self as damaged and needing reinvestment.     

Children's Definitions of Family Following Divorce of Their Parents

As children adapt to new, non-biologically based family forms as a result of the high incidence of divorce in the United States, new definitions of family may develop. This paper reports results from an anthropological study of children's definitions of their families following divorce of their parents. Interviews were conducted with 29 children of white, middle-class, divorced parents as part of an ongoing study of the effects of divorce on families. These children's definitions of their families fell into five, progressively more expansive types, from a limited, household definition to an expansive type including biological, legal, and non-kin. Children's use of criteria beyond biology or law to define their reconstituted families after divorce of their parents illustrates the voluntary nature of American kinship systems.     

Effects of Divorce on Children:

Seventy-one divorced single custodial parents and their 130 5- to 19- year-old children were administered open-ended questionnaires dealing with various aspects of how the children reacted and adjusted to the divorce. Positive reactions and adjustments were found to be related to children's (a) defining divorce in terms of psychological separation between the parents, (b) sharing divorce-related concerns with friends, (c) holding positive evaluations of both parents, and (d) having acquired strengths and responsibilities as a result of the divorce experience.     

Parental Authority in Divorced Families

This work examines the possible differences between divorced mothers and mothers of intact families in their inclinations to exert parental authority, and the possible relationship between the degree of parental authority and children's personal and social adjustment. For the purposes of the study, we developed the Haifa Parental Authority Questionnaire, which is a situation-depicted test based on a conceptual analysis of the construct of authority. The participants were 88 mother–child dyads, 56 from single (divorced) families and 32 from two-parent families. The results show that married mothers are more disposed than are divorced mothers to use their authority. Although adding family status and parental authority scores to the regression analysis yielded insignificant models for the two children's adjustment variables, the interaction between the variables was found to be significant. In the divorced family the more authoritarian the mother is, the worse is the child's personal adjustment, whereas in the intact family the more authoritarian the mother is, the better is the child's social adjustment. The results are discussed in the wider context of the mother–child relationship, the breakdown of the family's hierarchical structure following divorce, and the relationship of these factors with the exertion of parental authority.     

Prevention of Depressive Symptoms in Preadolescent Children of Divorce

Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of an intervention program (the Depression Prevention Program for Children), which was successful overall in preventing depressive symptoms in 5th and 6th grade children, for a subset of those children-those whose parents have divorced. The 12-week program taught cognitive and social problem solving skills to children in group sessions conducted in their middle schools. There were 59 children in the treatment group-thirty-one (31) children from intact families and 28 children whose parents were divorced. The children completed the Children's Depression Inventory at pretest, posttest, and at 6-month intervals after completion for a 2-year period. The program was effective in preventing depressive symptoms in both groups. However, there was a significant group × time interaction, indicating that for children of divorce, the effectiveness may begin to diminish over time. These findings are discussed in terms of the various factors which might influence the response of children of divorce to this and other interventions.     

Differences Between High School Students from Intact and Divorced Families

Previous research on the effects of divorce has focused primarily on young children. In the present study, 110 high school students from divorced or intact families were administered a variety of questionnaires to ascertain any differences between students from the two family situations. The questionnaires focused on the following areas: beliefs about divorce, family environment, interparental con- flict, and self-depiction. No significant differences were found be- tween the divorced and intact groups. These results suggest that teens from divorced families are as well-adjusted as teens from intact fami- lies. A number of correlations were found to be significant, implying that it is the family environment, not the process of divorce, that influences children's adjustment.     

Teachers' and School Children's Stereotypic Perception of the Child of Divorce: 20 Years Later

ABSTRACT

This is a replica of a study carried out in 1988. Its main objective is to reexamine after 20 years how teachers' and 8th-grade students' evaluations of a child's academic, social, and emotional functioning are affected by the knowledge that the child's parents are divorced. One hundred and twenty junior high school students and 115 female teachers watched a specially produced film of a child engaged in various activities. The child's gender and family structure were experimentally manipulated. The main results show that whereas in the earlier study both teachers and the students rated the child of divorce more negatively than the child of an intact family, in this study this was true only for the teachers. These and other results are discussed in the context of cultural attitudes, the more extensive contact teachers have with children of divorce, and the risk that they and their students become trapped in the Pygmalion cycle.     

Coming to Terms With Parental Divorce: Associations With Marital Outcomes and the Role of Gender and Religiosity

In this article we examine the current marriage relationship outcomes for children of divorce compared to children from intact families. The sample is 997 matched married couples. Those from families with married parents were more likely to come to terms with issues in their family of origin, and had higher religiosity, less negative communication, and more positive relationship satisfaction than those with divorced parents. Religiosity was effective in helping those with married parents come to terms with family of origin. The variable coming to terms with family of origin predicted positive marital outcomes to some extent for all couples, although for couples where both partners' parents had divorced coming to terms predicted fewer positive outcomes. Coming to terms for females was associated more profoundly with decreases in negative communication for both males and the females, and also predicted satisfaction and stability in more cases than did coming to terms for males.     

Effects of Divorce on Children's Perceptions of Parent Behavior and Locus of Control

This study examined the effects of divorce on later latency children from a nonclinical population. Perceptions of parent behavior and locus of control were assessed for 68 middle class children aged 9 to 12 years. Results showed a general absence of differences between children from divorced and intact families in their perceptions of parent behavior and locus of control. There were no significant differences between children from divorced and intact families on the three factors of the Children's Reports of Parent Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) (Acceptance-Rejection, Psychological Control-Psychological Autonomy, and Firm Control-Lax Control), 17 of 18 scales of the CRPBI, and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control scale. However, the Possessiveness scale of the CRPBI indicated that children of divorce perceived both their mothers and fathers as significantly more possessive than did children from intact families. The results showed that parental divorce did not impact strongly on children's perceptions of parents and locus of control and suggest minimal adverse effects of divorce, at least for children from the volunteer nonclinical population studied.     

Effects of Parental Divorce on Children's Financial Support for College Students

No-fault divorce laws, and the lowering of the age of minority from 21 to 18 years have combined to have unintended negative impact on the children of divorce. Previous research has shown that children whose parents are divorced are at increased risk for emotional problems and a reduced standard of living. This study was conducted to learn more about the effects of parental divorce on a young person's access to a college education. A questionnaire was developed to learn how students pay for college, and what non-financial support they receive from parents. The questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample 9 of 19 students at a state university. Findings indicated that young people whose parents were divorced received higher Pell grants, were more likely to provide more of their own necessities, and were more likely to repay their college loans themselves. Further, young people whose parents were divorced were much more likely to have their material and fnancial needs met by their custodial parents rather than their noncustodial parents. Implications are that young people with divorced parents may have less financial support for college from their family, and the support they receive is much more likely to come from their custodial than noncustodial parent. Changes in child support laws and financial aid policies are recommended.     

The Effects of Divorce on Children: Married and Divorced Parents' Perspectives

Three hypotheses, derived from the social psychology literature, regarding the impact of marital status history on parents' attitudes toward the impact of divorce on children were examined. Married parents (n = 118) were expected to report more negative effects of divorce on children than divorced parents (n = 114); mothers and fathers whose own parents remained married were expected to rate the impact of divorce more negatively than mothers and fathers whose parents had divorced; and, divorced parents who initiated their own divorce were expected to report fewer negative effects of divorce on children than parents who did not initiate divorce. All three hypotheses were supported, extending the self- and vested-interest research to the divorce literature.     

Conflict Patterns and Family of Origin Conflict in Newly Initiated Remarriages

ABSTRACT

The poor marriage material hypothesis explains the high divorce rate in remarriages as a function of the qualities of people who have previously been divorced. This study sought to test whether conflict in the family of origin and in the present marriage could substantiate the poor marriage material hypothesis by discriminating between couples in their first marriage versus those in a marriage with a history of divorce. A sample of 66 newlywed married couples, half in first marriages and half in remarriages, were recruited through marriage licenses and student referrals. Family of origin conflict discriminated between first and remarried couples. Namely, wives' exposure to interparental conflict significantly increased the odds that they were presently married to a husband who had previously been divorced. Differences between first and remarried couples' own conflict patterns were largely unremarkable with the exception of remarried couples seeing their partners as being more compliant and unassertive relative to those in first marriages.     

The Family Home as Attachment Object for Preschool Age Children After Divorce

This paper focuses on the results of clinical interviews which showed comparative differences between a divorced group of preschool age children living in the fmaily home and a cohort group moved from the family home. Analysis showed statistically significant differences in these categories: child's psychological security, perception of family relationships, and attitudes toward the family home. This work has implications for joint custody arrangements after divorced, as well as giving added information to parents and professional persons who are attempting to guide preschoolers with this acute family change. This study presents a challenge for society and health professionals to understand more of the developmental intricacies of mourning for different age children and of the role that object attachment plays for children in times of crisis. It offers information and a further challenge to understand more fully the general role of object attachment in the lives of preschoolers and in this process aids the development of preventive programs for children of divorce.     

The Double ABCX Model and Children's Post-Divorce Adaptation

Abstract

This article addresses the adaptation of children to divorce utilizing the post-crisis components of the Double ABCX Model of Family Stress by providing an overview of the post-crisis components of the model, integrating research on children's post-divorce adaptation into the specific components of the Double ABCX Model, and recommending applications for assessment, explanation, and therapy in relation to children's post-divorce adaptation. The variables examined include: parental divorce as a stressor (x); the children's pile-up of demands (aA); children's existing and new resources (bB); children's perception of the stressor, pile-up, and resources (cC); and children's post-divorce adaptation (xX).     

Marital Instability in Men from Intact and Divorced Families:

While researchers have understood the short-term effects of divorce and its harmful effects during childhood, the long- range implications, or effects in adulthood, have largely been ignored. The scant research available on adult children from divorce (ACDs) indicated the presence of long-term effects, with men suffering more effects than women. Theorists have suggested marital instability was transferred to offspring from parents, but were unclear on the mechanics of this process. This study sought to better understand the mechanics of the transmission process by determining whether three variables could help explain marital instability: interpersonal behavior, intimacy, and cognitions or injunctions, in married and divorced men from intact and divorced families of origin. The subjects were 151 male adults, aged 21-42 years, who com- pleted the Injunction Inventory, the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire, and Leary's Interpersonal Checklist. Multiple and one-way analysis of covariance on the data revealed little interaction between early family structure and marital status, but significant results were found which indicated differences between men from divorced families and men from intact families. Male ACDs (adult children of divorce) had a higher frequency of "Don't be close" injunctions, a guarded- hostile interpersonal style, and were maladjusted in responsibility. Intimacy did not differ between the groups.     

A Therapeutic Model to Enhance Children's Adjustment to Divorce

Research has revealed many detrimental effects of divorce upon children often related to ongoing conflict between biological parents. A therapeutic model, demonstrated by a case example, is presented which targets the conflict between divorced parents. This therapeutic approach is based upon negotiating cooperation among custodial and nonastodial parents. This is accomplished by clarifying the changed relationships resulting from divorce between the adults and children allowing all members of the divorced families to grieve the loss of predivorce relationships. Distinct new relationships are defined between all family members which reduce the need for adults to compete in relationships with the children.