Parental Divorce and Premarital Couples: Commitment and Other Relationship Characteristics

Parental divorce is thought to affect the romantic relationships of young adults, especially with respect to their certainty about the relationship and perceptions of problems in it. We examined these connections with a random sample of 464 coupled partners. Compared with women from intact families, women from divorced families reported less trust and satisfaction, but more ambivalence and conflict. For men, perceptions of relationships were contingent on the marital status of their partners' parents, although men from intact and divorced families did differ on structural constraints that affect commitment. Young adults who were casually dating showed the strongest effects of parental divorce, suggesting that the repercussions of parental divorce may be in place before the young adults form their own romantic relationships.     

The effects of parental divorce on individuals’ commitment to same-sex relationships

Abstract

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that individuals who come from divorced families have reduced commitment to the institution of marriage, which may translate to reduced commitment to one’s current relationship. We tested the association between two components of relationship commitment (dedication and constraint) and parental divorce in a sample of 251 adults in same-sex relationships. Results demonstrated that parental divorce was significantly associated with lower dedication commitment among women, but not men. Parental divorce was not associated with constraint commitment for either gender. These findings suggest that, consistent with research on individuals in different-sex relationships, women in same-sex relationships who come from divorced families may feel less dedicated to their own relationships, putting them at greater risk for relationship instability and divorce.     

Parental Factors,Psychological Well-Being,and Sibling Dynamics: A Mediational Model in Emerging Adulthood

The purposes of the current study were to assess the impact of parental divorce on psychological well-being in general and on sibling dynamics in particular. Driven by recent advances in systems orientation, the study assesses the interconnection between divorce, perceived parental marital satisfaction, psychological well-being, and sibling dynamics and evaluates the interconnection between sibling relationship quality, perceived parental marital satisfaction, and psychological well-being outcomes in emerging adulthood. Three hundred and ninety-two college students completed indices of parental marital status and satisfaction, sibling relationship quality, and psychological well-being. Positive associations between perceived parental marital satisfaction and sibling closeness and communication were found. Perceived parental marital satisfaction was also found to be positively associated with self-esteem and life-satisfaction. Sibling closeness and warmth was positively correlated with satisfaction with life. Perceived parental marital satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between parental divorce and sibling closeness as well as the relationship between parental divorce and sibling communication. Furthermore, perceived parental marital satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between sibling closeness and life-satisfaction. The current study contributes to a growing body of literature assessing parental variables, sibling relationships, and well-being in emerging adults. The results highlight the importance of examining the mechanisms through which separation/divorce impact outcomes.     

The Effects of Family Structure of Origin on Offspring Cohabitation Duration

This study uses data from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the effects of family structure of origin on offspring's cohabiting unions. Parental divorce substantially decreases the likelihood that these relationships end in marriage, but this effect is almost completely ameliorated by parental remarriage. Parental divorce also increases the chances that a cohabiting relationship will break up, but the effect is much smaller than the impact of parental divorce on marital stability. I explain this discrepancy by showing that cohabitation is inherently unstable compared to marriage. In a context of instability, family structure of origin makes less difference than it does in marriage.     

The Interactive Effects of Marital Conflict and Divorce on Parent – Adult Children's Relationships

This study examines main effect and interactive models of the relations between marital conflict, divorce, and parent – adult child relationships and gender differences in these relations. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of a community sample (N = 585). Parental marital conflict and divorce were measured from age 5 through age 17 years. Mother‐child and father‐child relationship quality at age 22 years was assessed in terms of closeness‐support and conflict‐control. Results indicated that both marital conflict and divorce are associated with poorer quality parent – adult child relationships. Divorce moderated the link between marital conflict and subsequent negativity in mother‐child relationships, with the estimated effects being stronger in continuously married families than in divorced families, especially for women.     

Parental Divorce and Child Mental Health Trajectories

A process‐oriented approach to parental divorce locates the experience within the social and developmental context of children's lives, providing greater insight into how parental divorce produces vulnerability in some children and resiliency in others. The current study involves prospectively tracking a nationally representative sample of Canadian children of ages 4–7 and living with two biological parents at initial interview in 1994 (N = 2,819), and comparing the mental health trajectories of children whose parents remain married with those whose parents divorce by 1998. Results from growth curve models confirm that, even before marital breakup, children whose parents later divorce exhibit higher levels of anxiety/depression and antisocial behavior than children whose parents remain married. There is a further increase in child anxiety/depression but not antisocial behavior associated with the event of parental divorce itself. Controlling for predivorce parental socioeconomic and psychosocial resources fully accounts for poorer child mental health at initial interview among children whose parents later divorce, but does not explain the divorce‐specific increase in anxiety/depression. Finally, a significant interaction between parental divorce and predivorce levels of family dysfunction suggests that child antisocial behavior decreases when marriages in highly dysfunctional families are dissolved.     

Gender Differences in Social Acculturation and Social Capital in Determining Marital and Parental Role Expectations Among People of Mexican Descent

Men and women experience acculturation differently, creating acculturative gaps that may affect traditional family role expectations. In the current study, additive moderation between social acculturation, bonding social capital, and gender in relationship to marital and parental role expectations was explored among Mexican Americans (N = 314). The results indicate that when bonding social capital is at low to moderate levels, women are more committed to marital and parental roles and report more marital reward value as social acculturation increases. However, as bonding social capital and social acculturation increase, women report less marital reward value and marital and parental commitment. The size and quality of personal networks among Mexican American men and women appear to relate to social acculturation’s conditional relationship to family role expectations.     

Parental Divorce and Romantic Attachment in Young Adulthood: Important Role of Problematic Beliefs

In the current study 45 university students with either divorced or continuously married parents were surveyed about their romantic attachment, positive emotionality, depressive symptomology, self-esteem, and, when applicable, their retrospective beliefs about their parents’ marital dissolution. Findings revealed that parental divorce did not predict attachment insecurity, depression, or low self-esteem. In fact, adult children of divorced parents (ACDP) reported increased compassion, awe, enthusiasm, and perspective taking. Among ACDP, a composite factor representing increased fear of abandonment, peer rejection, and maternal blame was positively associated with adult attachment anxiety, even while controlling for parental conflict and divorce-related socioenvironmental disruption. Results are discussed in terms of their support of a complex understanding of the long-term effects of parental divorce, and in their inconsistency with a purely pathogenic model of parental divorce.     

Longitudinal Patterns of Women's Marital Quality: The Case of Divorce,Cohabitation, and Race-Ethnicity

Previous work on marital quality has compared average levels of marital quality by demographic characteristics, such as cohabitation, divorce, or race-ethnicity. Less work has examined whether such differences persist over time. To begin to answer this question, this article uses multigroup latent growth curves to examine changes in marital quality over time, in addition to measuring differences in levels of reported marital quality among cohabitors versus noncohabitors, divorced versus stably married women, and members of different racial-ethnic groups. Although many differences are small and statistically insignificant, the results show that non-normative and traditionally disadvantaged groups experience not only lower levels of marital quality but that these differences also persist throughout the life course. This article also shows that using marital instead of relationship duration for cohabitors has substantive implications when interpreting the results.     

Effects of Religiosity,Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n?=?829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.     

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.     

Marital Quality,Gender, and Markers of Inflammation in the MIDUS Cohort

Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low‐quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high‐quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support and marital strain) and two biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin‐6 and C‐reactive protein) among men and women in long‐term marriages using data from the Survey of Midlife in the United States (N = 542). Lower levels of spousal support were associated with higher levels of inflammation among women but not men. Higher levels of spousal strain were weakly and inconsistently associated with higher levels of inflammation among women and men; the effects were diminished with the addition of psychosocial and behavioral covariates. These findings suggest marital quality is an important predictor of inflammation, especially among women.     

Parents' Marital Status, Conflict, and Role Modeling: Links With Adult Romantic Relationship Quality

This study investigated three parental marital statuses and relationship quality among unmarried, but dating adults ages 18 to 35 (N = 1153). Those whose parents never married one another tended to report the lowest relationship quality (in terms of relationship adjustment, negative communication, commitment, and physical aggression) compared to those with divorced or married biological parents. In addition, those with divorced parents reported lower relationship adjustment and more negative communication than those with married parents. Parental conflict and the degree to which participants rated their parents' relationship as a healthy model for their own relationships partially explained the associations between parental marital status and relationship outcomes. We suggest that this particular family type (i.e., having parents who never marry one another) needs greater attention in this field in terms of research and intervention.     

Marital satisfaction and social learning family therapy for child conduct problems: generalization of treatment effects

Successful treatment outcome and maintenance for families with aggressive children by means of social learning family therapy were reported by Sayger, Horne, Walker, and Passmore (1988). The present study examined the generalization of treatment effects to the child's classroom, the parental level of marital satisfaction, the general family relationship environment, and the parental level of depression. Results of this study show that teachers reported improved child behavior following treatment. Parental level of marital satisfaction was increased and sustained for those parents who were experiencing low levels of marital satisfaction prior to treatment. The participating families also became more cohesive and expressive, and less conflictual. Although pretreatment levels of parental depression were moderately low, these levels were alleviated.     

Divorce and Adult Psychological Well‐Being: Clarifying the Role of Gender and Child Age

Substantial evidence indicates that marital dissolution has negative consequences for adult well‐being. Because most research focuses on the average consequences of divorce, we know very little about factors that moderate this association. The present study tests the hypothesis that the effects of marital dissolution on adult well‐being are greatest for those with young children in the home at the time of marital dissolution. Analysis of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N= 4,811 men and women married at the baseline interview) supports this hypothesis, especially among women. For women without young children, marital dissolution appears to have few negative consequences for psychological well‐being. Differential exposure to secondary stressors that accompany marital dissolution partly explains these patterns.     

Role of Marital Quality in Explaining Depressive Symptoms After Marital Termination Among Older Adults

This study assesses whether prior marital quality moderates the impact of divorce or widowhood on subsequent depression. Poor marital quality may buffer depression associated with divorce/widowhood; conversely, the effect of divorce/widowhood on depression could be exacerbated by previous marital quality. Three waves from the National Survey of Families and Households based on respondents, ages 50 and older, (N?=?2,570) included eight marital quality measures. We find limited evidence suggesting higher marital quality elevates, while lower marital quality decreases, depression after divorce. No moderating effects were found for widowhood. Additionally, health condition is more important than current marital status for elders’ well-being after divorce or widowhood. Heterogeneity in the context of the marriage before divorce should be considered when examining marital termination effects on elders’ depression.     

Psychological Morbidity,Social Intimacy,Physical Symptomatology,and Lifestyle in Adult Children of Divorced Parents

This study assessed the relationships between psychological morbidity, social intimacy, perception of the parental relationship, lifestyle and physical symptomatology as well as the contributors of physical symptomatology, in adult children of divorced parents. Participants answered the Physical Symptom Questionnaire, the Anxiety, Depression and Stress Scale, the Lifestyle Questionnaire, the Social Intimacy Scale and The Perception of the Parental Relationship Scale. Results revealed that older participants showed lower levels of anxiety, depression and stress and that male participants perceived the parental relationship as better when compared to females. There was a negative association between depression and the duration of parental divorce. Adult children with greater physical symptoms and more anxious showed less social intimacy. The latter was associated with a less healthy lifestyle. As expected less physical symptomatology was associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Anxiety was the only variable that contributed to physical symptomatology. Intervention should be gender sensitive and focus early on on the identification of psychological morbidity, social intimacy, healthy behaviors, and physical symptomatology, in adult children whose parents are in the process of divorcing.     

PARENTAL ABSENCE DURING CHILDHOOD AND DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE

Long-term consequences of parental absence during childhood for adult depression are examined using 1987–1988 National Survey of Families and Households data. Whites and African Americans, male and female, separated from a parent score higher on a measure of depression than those raised in continuously intact families. Hispanic males and females show no such differences. All reasons for parental absence (divorce, death, out-of-wedlock birth, and others) relate to elevated depression in one or another group. Educational attainment and current marital status mediated a moderate proportion of the estimated effect for whites and African American females.     

The Father–Daughter Relationship and Intimacy in the Marriages of Daughters of Divorce

This article examines how being the daughter of divorce affects one's marital relationship. We examined this issue by studying the role of the father–daughter relationship in a sample of 90 women, all of whom were currently married and had parents who were divorced, with a Web-based survey. Specifically, this study investigated whether there was a relationship between the strength of these women's relationships with their fathers and the level of commitment, intimacy, and communication in their current marriages. This study produced evidence that the strength of the father–daughter relationship corresponded with current marital intimacy. However, the level of commitment and communication in their own marriages was not linked to the strength of their relationships with their fathers. This study has important implications regarding the work clinicians do to protect and strengthen the father–daughter relationship when working with families who have experienced parental divorce.     

“It Is Not a Big Deal,I Can Do It,Too”: Influence of Parental Divorce on Professional Women's Marital Experience in Turkey

This article reports on a study of how parental divorce affects the marriage and divorce experiences of professional women in Turkey. Drawing on the retrospective accounts of eight professional women in relation to their own divorce and those of their parents, this study highlights the role of parental divorce and cultural context in adult children's attitudes, beliefs, and experiences regarding their own union formation. Based on this small qualitative sample, results demonstrate that parental divorce affected women's entire lives, with considerable impact on their commitment to marriage and view of divorce in general. They learn from their parents that marriages can be broken when they do not function properly. As a result, instead of being more patient or self- sacrificing, as is frequently advised to women in Turkish society, the women in this study readily tended toward divorce as a viable solution to marital problems.