The Divorce Process and Young Children's Well-Being: A Prospective Analysis

Abstract

The US National Longitudinal Study of Youth-Child supplement (NLSY) was used to generate a sample of 1123 children 3-13 years old in 1986 for examining the consequences of divorce on behavior problems and academic achievement for young children. Children included must have been born within wedlock and living in intact families in 1986. The study focus was on answering whether child or family circumstances prior to disruption account for any of the negative association between marital disruption and child well being and how specific changes in life circumstances after disruption mediate the effects of divorce. A brief background review of pertinent literature is given. Limitations are that the sample of children experiencing disruption was small (129) and are not representative of all children; the sample of mothers tends to reflect younger and disadvantaged backgrounds. Generalizability of results is limited by the definition of children included. Child assessments are available but absent are direct measures of family conflict or parental psychological functioning. Child well being is measured by the Behavior Problems Index (BPI) and 3 Peabody Achievement tests (PIAT). Family disruption is the experience of separation or divorce between 1986 and 1988. The average time since disruption was 12.2 months. The childs early development and environment are also accounted for. Life changes included change in the home environment and downward mobility. The ordinary least squares findings show that the mean scores were lower for those in disrupted families. Boys experienced greater behavior problems and mathematics scores; 42% of boys in disrupted families scored a half deviation above the mean vs. 25% for other boys. For girls 29% in disrupted families vs. 17% for other girls fell into below average categories. The likelihood of shifting from lower to higher BPI scores for both boys and girls was associated with disruption as well as higher to lower scores for boys and from higher to lower scores on the 2 reading tests for girls. Maternal risk factors economic hardship and child difficulties as proxies for family dysfunction are accounted for in several models to determine the adverse effect on childrens outcomes. It is suggested that the effect of the breakup and aftermath on boys behavior problems may be greater during the crisis period than later and stronger on young children. Changes in family circumstances are less important in explaining math scores than behavior problems. The role of disruption vs. prior characteristics still needs further examination; longterm effects also need to be examined.