Parental Divorce and Young Adults' Beliefs About Love

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare collegc students from intact vs. divorced families on bcliefs and attitudes about love and romantic relationships. We examincd, with a sample of over 1,000 college students (389 males and 634 females), how thc two groups differed on attachment types (e.g., Hazan & Shaver, 1987), love styles (e.g., Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986), romantic beliefs (e.g., Sprcchcr & Metts, 1989), and the belief that love should be the basis for marriage (e.g., Kcphart, 1967). Women with divorced parents, relative to women with nondivorced parents, werc less likely to have a secure attachment style but morc likely to have an avoidant attachment style; were less pragmatic, manic and agamic in their love styles; and were less idealistic in their romantic beliefs. Only one difference was found bctwccn thc two groups for men: Men from divorced families were more erotic than men from intact families. However, follow-up analyses which included a comparison of three groups formed based on parental marriage-intact/happily marricd, intacttunhappily married, and divorced-indicated that it was the men in the intactlunhappy group who were especially low on erotic love. The follow-up analyses also indicated that thc significant diffcrcnces found for women between the intact group and the divorced group werc due to differences, more specifically, between thc intactlhappy group and the divorced group. Overall, the results of this study suggest that parental divorce does not place children at a disadvantage in the development of love and relationship beliefs conducive to relationship fonnation in adolescence and young adulthood.