CORRELATES OF CHILDREN'S SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT FOLLOWING DIVORCE

This study examines family correlates of children's social adjustment following divorce. Data concerning 411 children were collected from interviews wlth 206 randomly selected custodial parents. A social adjustment scale completed by the custodial parent served as the criterion measure of children's adjustment. The most significant factor related to children's satisfactory social adjustment was a positive relationship with the custodial parent. Other significant correlates included the custodial parent's own ability to maintain emotional and social adjustment, that parent's age and number of previous marriages, the children's current reaction to the divorce, and parental satisfaction with dating and friends.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Moderators of Women's and Children's Adjustment Following Parental Divorce

This research sought to determine the strongest moderators of the relationship between the crisis of parental divorce and the psychosocial adjustment of divorced women and their dependent children. The current relationship with the ex-husband was the best predictor of divorcees' adjustment, while divorcees' happiness in their former marriages was most strongly related to their children's adjustment. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for the identification of and interventions with "high risk" divorced families.     

Psychosocial Well‐Being and the Relationship Between Divorce and Children's Academic Achievement

As an unprecedented number of children live in families experiencing divorce, researchers have developed increasingly complex explanations for the consequences associated with marital dissolution. Current accounts focus on changes to family finances, destabilized parenting practices, elevated parental conflict, and deterioration of the parent–child relationship, to explain the impact of divorce. A less studied explanation draws attention to children's diminished psychosocial well‐being following divorce. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K) (N = 10,061), I examined the role of psychosocial well‐being in the relationship between divorce and children's outcomes. The results suggest that divorce is associated with diminished psychosocial well‐being in children, and that this decrease helps explain the connection between divorce and lower academic achievement.     

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children

I use a divorce‐stress‐adjustment perspective to summarize and organize the empirical literature on the consequences of divorce for adults and children. My review draws on research in the 1990s to answer five questions: How do individuals from married and divorced families differ in well‐being? Are these differences due to divorce or to selection? Do these differences reflect a temporary crisis to which most people gradually adapt or stable life strains that persist more or less indefinitely? What factors mediate the effects of divorce on individual adjustment? And finally, what are the moderators (protective factors) that account for individual variability in adjustment to divorce? In general, the accumulated research suggests that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people's lives. But people vary greatly in their reactions. Divorce benefits some individuals, leads others to experience temporary decrements in well‐being, and forces others on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully. Understanding the contingencies under which divorce leads to these diverse outcomes is a priority for future research.     

Impacts of Parents' Divorce on Chinese Children

Abstract

The study examined the impact of parents' divorce on Chinese children's well-being. A Chinese theoretical model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling. The sample consisted of 940 Chinese children aged 6–16. The well-being of children from divorced families was compared with that of two-parent and widowed families. The results showed that children's academic performance mediated the negative impact of divorce on children's well-being. The societal discriminating attitude towards divorce and single-parent families had a strong negative effect on the children's well-being. Parenting skills of the custodial parent had more influence on the children's well-being than the marital conflicts prior to the divorce. Supports from the extended families counterbalanced some negative effects associated with divorce.     

Assessing Dimensions of Single Parenting:

The role of the parent-child relationship has been shown to be a major determinant of children's post-divorce adjustment. This study reflects an effort to develop and validate an instrument which assesses five dimensions of single parenting. Problem solving skills, parental warmth, discipline procedures, parent rules, enthusiasm for parenting and parent support systems were chosen as factors to be assessed in the Single Parenting Questionnaire because of their demonstrated relationship with child adjustment. Items were purposefully worded to assess these dimensions. Reliability coefficients and scale inter-correlations were calculated based on the responses of two hundred thirty-nine divorced and custodial parents to insure maximum between-scale heterogeneity and maximum within-scale homogeneity. Alpha coefficients ranging from .59 to .85 for the five scales the composite Total scale were demonstrated. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability coefficients ranging from .54 to .71 and .00 to .59 and with means of .59 and .32, respectively, were obtained. Concurrent validity studies indicate that this questionnaire shares significant correlations with the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale and the Child Behavior Checklist. The obtained statistical support for the Single Parenting Questionnaire suggests that it may be useful in both clinical and research efforts focusing on children of divorce.     

Life Course Changes of Children and Well‐being of Parents

How do children's life course transitions affect the well‐being of their parents? Using a large panel survey among parents with longitudinal information on 2 randomly chosen children, the authors analyzed the effects of children's union formation, parenthood, and union dissolution on changes in depressive symptoms of parents. Negative effects were found for children's divorce, and positive effects were found for children's marriage and parenthood. Mothers suffered more from a child's divorce or separation than fathers. Effects depended in part on the parent's traditional family norms, pointing to a normative explanation of life course effects. Little evidence was found for explanations in terms of altruism or selfish motivations. In a more general sense, this article supports the notion of linked lives suggested by the life course perspective. This research provides stronger support for this notion than the few previous studies that have examined it.     

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.     

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).     

Children's Perceptions of Their Parents' Divorce

The purpose of this study was to explore children's perceptions of their parents' divorce. One hundred and thirty two children, ranging in age from 5 to 19 years, responded to 13 questions of an open-ended interview; 92 of these children, ranging in age from 10 to 19 years, also responded to a 69-item structured questionnaire. For both measures, interest was directed on the extent to which age; sex; level of lacus of control, interpersonal knowledge, and intelligence; and length of parental separation were related to children's responses. The general tone of children's responses to both measures was positive yet realistic; children did not, in short, view their parent's divorce as an overly distressing experience. This finding supports the validity of the two measures. Moreover, the nature of children's responses was rather consistently related to age and level of both locus of control and interpersonal knowledge in the openended interview, and to age and level of locus of control in the more structured questionnaire. The extent to which children both perceive themselves as having a major cause in their life experiences and understand the dynamics of interpersonal relations, then, significantly influences their perceptions of their parents' divorce.     

Trajectory of Influence of Parental Divorce on Children's Heterosexual Relationships

This is a qualitative research study adopting a naturalistic paradigm in exploring the influence of parental divorce on childen's subsequent heterosexual relationship. Numerous studies have been conducted to verify the nature and extent of this influence though most of them adhere to the postivist-empirical tradition. However, the influence of parental divorce on children's subsequent heterosexual relationships is inherently an extremely complex human interactive process which is very difficult, if not impossible, to be understood through a positivist tradition which focuses more on verification rather than understanding. Gathered through a naturalistic paradigm, the data of this study reveal the complexity of the process involved "A trajectory of parental influence on children's heterosexual relationships" is proposed. The understanding of this process sheds light on the long-term effect of parental divorce on children regarding their adult heterosexual relationships. As such, this study bears significant implications for marital therapy to adult children of divorce.     

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.     

Parental Predivorce Relations and Offspring Postdivorce Well‐Being

This 2‐part study uses national longitudinal interview data from parents and their adult children to examine the way in which predivorce marital conflict influences the impact of divorce on children. In the 1st study, we find that the dissolution of low‐conflict marriages appears to have negative effects on offspring's lives, whereas the dissolution of high‐conflict marriages appears to have beneficial effects. The dissolution of low‐conflict marriages is associated with the quality of children's intimate relationships, social support from friends and relatives, and general psychological well‐being. The 2nd study considers how parents in low‐conflict marriages that end in divorce differ from other parents before divorce. We find that low‐conflict parents who divorce are less integrated into the community, have fewer impediments to divorce, have more favorable attitudes toward divorce, are more predisposed to engage in risky behavior, and are less likely to have experienced a parental divorce.     

Child Adjustment to Familial Dissolution: An Examination of Parental Factors Using a Self-Determination Theory Framework

Research on child adjustment to familial dissolution has been plentiful over the past few decades. However, the mechanisms regulating the process of child adjustment and the ways in which parental factors function to protect against or elevate the risk of child maladjustment are still little understood. We examine the existing literature through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), a theory of motivation that proposes 3 universal psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). According to this model, the meeting of these needs is vital for well-being, whereas their thwarting may result in maladjustment. As parental divorce has the potential to undermine all 3 of children's needs, future research built on an SDT framework could help illuminate the processes by which parenting factors affect child adjustment to divorce.     

How Childhood Circumstances Moderate the Long‐Term Impact of Divorce on Father–Child Relationships

Using retrospective survey data collected in the Netherlands in 2012, the author examined how childhood circumstances moderate the effect of an early parental divorce on relationships between fathers and adult children. Using adult children's reports about the frequency of contact and the quality of the relationship, he found strong negative effects of parental divorce. These effects are moderated by 3 childhood conditions. The more fathers were involved in childrearing during marriage, the less negative the divorce effect on father–child relationships. Father's resources also moderated the effect, with a smaller divorce effect for more highly educated fathers. Finally, high levels of interparental conflict reduce the impact of divorce as well, generalizing the stress relief effect to a new outcome. In general, the study shows that the impact of divorce is heterogeneous; that childhood circumstances play an important role in this; and that, under specific conditions, there is virtually no negative effect of parental divorce.     

Children's Behavior Problems in Single-Parent and Married-Parent Families

Abstract

A model integrating prevailing perspectives on children's functioning following divorce was used to predict children's behavior problems. The data were collected from 30 custodial mothers, 30 custodial fathers, and 30 married parents with children 6 to 10 years of age, using face-to-face interviews and standardized questionnaires. Results using path analysis indicated that marital status and parental control had significant direct effects on children's behavior problems. Sex of parent, economic strain, co-parental conflict, coping with roles, and parenting indirectly influenced children's behavior through parental control. The findings suggest that the pressures inherent in raising a child alone, combined with too few resources for coping with role demands, are disruptive to both parenting and parental control, and that children in single-parent families appear to respond to these deficits with disruptive behaviors. Implications for family practice and policy are discussed.     

Family Environment and Adolescents' Well‐Being Before and After Parents' Marital Disruption: A Longitudinal Analysis

Although previous research has noted that children of divorce tend to fare less well than peers raised in families with two biological parents, much less is known about how parents' marital disruption affects children as a continuous process in its different phases. Based on two waves of a large, nationally representative panel, this study demonstrates that even before the disruption, both male and female adolescents from families that subsequently dissolve exhibit more academic, psychological, and behavioral problems than peers whose parents remain married. Families on the verge of breakup are also characterized by less intimate parent‐parent and parent‐child relationships, less parental commitment to children's education, and fewer economic and human resources. These differences in family environment account for most well‐being deficits among adolescents in predisrupted families. Furthermore, the deterioration in different domains of the family environment appears to be associated with maladjustment in different aspects of children's lives. The postdisruption effects on adolescents can either be totally or largely predicted by predisruption factors and by changes in family circumstances during the period coinciding with the disruption. Finally, the analyses indicate that female adolescents are as likely to be affected by the parental divorce process as male adolescents.