Causes and Consequences of Divorced Parents in Child Personality Development

Abstract

By the nature of the concept, parents need to ensure the growth and development of their children, the creation of an appropriate, non-confrontational environment, their emotional preparation to face adverse life events so that they are manageable and not traumatic. In practice, post-divorce parental interactions are unsatisfactory and damaging because they often transmit to the child the hostility that the child feels towards the ex-spouse, with consequences for the child’s psycho-emotional balance. In this context, the HiPIC – Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children test was used in order to assess the parents’ (the resident parent and the parents with organized family) perception of their child, to reflect on the child’s concrete and observable behaviours. The sample selected included children aged 9-12 and their parents. Scoring and interpretation of the HiPIC test and statistical processing revealed five dimensions of specific child personality functioning. The psychological analysis of research on divorced families, the relationship between the resident parent and the child is reviewed. Caught up in the hostility between them, parents often do not sense the emotional disorders and imbalances in the child’s personality that generate and lead to the formation of problematic personality patterns in the minor.