Parental Divorce and College Students: The Impact of Family Unpredictability and Perceptions of Divorce

The impact of parental divorce, perceptions of divorce, and family unpredictability on the locus of control, interpersonal trust, and assertiveness of college students (n = 115) was studied. Roughly 27% of participants came from divorced homes; they did not differ significantly from participants from nondivorced homes on locus of control, trust, or assertiveness. However, negative perceptions of parental divorce were associated with a more external locus of control. Aspects of maternal unpredictability related to lower trust yet higher assertiveness. Participants with divorced parents reported more unpredictable finances and somewhat more unpredictable meals growing up. Implications for adjusting to divorce are discussed.     

Relocation,Parent Conflict,and Domestic Violence: Independent Risk Factors for Children of Divorce

SUMMARY

We performed several re-analyses of data presented in Braver, Ellman, and Fabricius (2003) to examine whether their findings that parental relocation after divorce was associated with negative long-term outcomes in their grown children could be due to pre-existing levels of parent conflict and domestic violence. Conflict and violence might have caused parents to relocate, and might have caused the negative outcomes. Evidence from analyses of covariance, controlling for levels of conflict and violence (as reported by the grown children), confirmed that relocation was associated with negative outcomes over and above the associations of conflict and violence with negative outcomes. These new findings support the original recommendation of Braver et al. that “courts should give greater weight to the child's separate interests in deciding such [relocation] cases” (p. 206). Additionally, there was little indication that moves reduced levels of conflict, but that finding is tentative.     

Frequency and Types of Partner Violence Among Mexican American College Women

Objective and Participants: The authors studied the prevalence of partner violence, by type, among Mexican American college women aged 18 to 35 years (N = 149; response rate = 85%). Results: Twelve percent of women who reported a dating partner in the past year were physically or sexually assaulted, 12.1% were stalked, and 9.1% scored as psychologically abused. Among those experiencing partner violence, almost half experienced stalking and 89% reported psychological abuse. Few women (25%) who experienced physical violence believed violence was a problem in their relationship. Conclusions: Partner violence was prevalent in this population, and participants experienced many forms of violence. Because few women experiencing physical violence report that violence is a problem in their relationship, interventions must address perceptions of violence and its impact on women's mental and physical health in college populations.     

Women's Education,Marital Violence,and Divorce: A Social Exchange Perspective

Drawing on social exchange theories, the authors hypothesized that educated women are more likely than uneducated women to leave violent marriages and suggested that this pattern offsets the negative education–divorce association commonly found in the United States. They tested these hypotheses using 2 waves of young adult data on 914 married women from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The evidence suggests that the negative relationship between women's education and divorce is weaker when marriages involve abuse than when they do not. The authors observed a similar pattern when they examined the association of women's proportional earnings and divorce, controlling for education. Supplementary analyses suggested that marital satisfaction explains some of the association among women's resources, victimization, and divorce but that marital violence continues to be a significant moderator of the education–divorce association. In sum, education appears to benefit women by both maintaining stable marriages and dissolving violent ones.     

The Effects of Parental Divorce on the Moral Judgment Development of Freshman and Sophomore College Students

This research investigated the effects of parental divorce on the moral judgment development of freshman and sophomore college students (N?=?377). Freshmen with divorced parents had lower scores of moral judgment development than freshmen with married parents, whereas sophomores with divorced parents had higher moral judgment development scores than sophomores with married parents. It was also found that an experience changing homes in childhood or adolescence was negatively associated with moral judgment development for freshmen but positively associated with moral judgment development for sophomores. It was concluded that the change of environment associated with a parental divorce could enhance moral judgment development growth in the early years of college.