Influences of Family Structure and Parental Conflict on Children's Well-Being

Abstract

Influences of Family Structure and Parental Conflict on Children's Well-Being* Elizabeth A. Vandewater** and Jennifer E. Lansford Relative effects of membership in one of two family structures (married-never divorced vs. divorced-not remarried) and interparental conflict (high vs. low) on children's well-being (internalizing, externalizing behavior, and trouble with peers) are examined for a sample of 10- to 17-year-old children and their parents from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 618). Findings support the hypothesis that conflict influences children's well-being regardless of family structure. Children in high conflict families showed lower levels of well-being on all outcomes, but no well-being differences were found between family structure groups. Analyses of child gender indicated that warmth toward the child mediated the relationship between conflict and well-being for girls. For boys, both conflict and warmth were directly related to well-being independently. Implications of results for theory, research, and policy are discussed. Key Words: child well-being, family structure, conflict. In this study we compare the relative influences of family structure and conflict on different aspects of children's well-being. To know why and to what extent family structure and conflict affect children's well-being is of obvious practical importance to parents, to family and marital practitioners, to those who set family-relevant policies, and to researchers hoping to assist the decision making of such groups (Peterson & Zill, 1986). In his influential review, Emery (1982) argued that it is critical to understand whether separation from a parent per se or interparental conflict is more influential for predicting children's adjustment . . because it bears on such issues as whether parents should stay together for the children's sake (p. 313). Despite arguments such as Emery's (1982; see also Demo & Acock, 1988), there is a large body of research focusing on the negative effects of divorce on children. This research is largely based on two long-standing assumptions: separation is always traumatic for children; and two-parent families ipso facto provide a better environment for children than do single-parent families (see Amato & Keith, 1991; Demo & Acock, 1988; Emery, 1982, for reviews). Such studies are the basis for warnings about the devastating effects of divorce on children, and the damage of living in single-parent families for children's adjustment and wellbeing (e.g., Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). However, this parental absence has been criticized for neglecting the influence of family processes on children's well-being in two-parent as well as in single-parent families (e.g., Amato & Keith, 1991; Emery, 1982; Scanzoni, Polonko, Teachman, & Thompson, 1989). Based upon such critiques, the importance of identifying potentially important family processes that affect children's adjustment and wellbeing within all types of family structures is now well recognized (Allison & Furstenberg, 1989; Amato & Keith, 1991; Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Several theoretical perspectives have been proposed to account for processes bv which family structure may affect children's well-being (see Amato, 1993; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994; Webster, Orbuch, & House, 1995 for reviews). One such explanation focuses on economic hardship facing single mothers and their children that often follows divorce. According to this perspective, it is not family structure per se, but rather a decrease in the family's standard of living following divorce that is related to children's well-being. Another explanation focuses on life stress and parents' adjustment following divorce. This perspective holds that divorce is stressful for both parents and children and that how well parents cope with divorce is directly related to how well their children can be expected to cope. …