Exploring psychosocial adjustment profiles in Chinese adolescents from divorced families: The interplay of parental attachment and adolescent’s gender

Abstract

Parental divorce has been extensively documented as a risk factor for adolescent psychosocial functions. However, recent empirical findings argue that adolescents following parental divorce are not disadvantaged, indicating that adolescents’ reactions to parental divorce may vary substantially. Given these mixed findings in the existing literature, the current study uses a person-centered approach to explore psychosocial adjustment profiles in Chinese adolescents and compare these emerging profiles between adolescents from divorced and intact families. Likewise, this study investigates the direct and interactive effects of paternal attachment, maternal attachment, adolescent’s gender, and family structure (divorced vs. intact) on these emerging profiles. A total of 681 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old (M age = 15.64; SD = 1.59) were involved in this study. Of these adolescents, 237 adolescents (59% girls) were from divorced families, and 444 adolescents (66% girls) were from intact families. The results of a latent profile analysis showed four empirically driven adjustment profiles: severely maladaptive, slightly maladaptive, indifferent, and adaptive. Adolescents from divorced families exhibited a higher proportion of the severely maladaptive profile and a lower percentage of the adaptive profile than those from intact families. Moreover, the results of a multinomial logistic regression exhibited that parental divorce enhanced the probability of being members of the maladaptive profile (vs. the adaptive profile) for boys. In addition, girls from divorced families with secure maternal attachment were more likely to be members of the adaptive profile (vs. the slightly maladaptive). The current findings indicate that Chinese adolescents following parental divorce exhibit a maladaptive pattern of psychosocial functions, and this maladjustment pattern is particularly heightened for boys. Secure maternal attachment significantly contributes to girls’ (but not boys’) post-divorce adaptive functions.