Parental Divorce and Mother-Child Interaction

Abstract

In the past few decades, researchers have become extremely interested in the effects of divorce on all those involved. One potential effect is on mother-child interaction. However, most researchers who have addressed the effects of parental divorce on mother-child interaction have failed to assess both the mother's and the child's perspectives in their measurements and have done studies based on a very negative view of divorce. The current study aims to examine both mothers' and children's behavior, specifically emotions and social scaffolding, and to look at divorce through a positive lens using data collected from the Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Participants were 160 mothers and their eleven-year-old children. Data were collected by coding videotapes of mother-child interactions during a math task. The theoretical framework was the socio-cultural learning theory of Vygotsky and Rogoff. Results showed that there were no significant differences between divorced and intact mothers or children on either emotion or scaffolding variables, even with high power. Marginally significant differences were found in humor and zone of proximal development.