Children's Postdivorce Adjustment Research Articles

Examining Children's Problem Behaviors and Mothers' Dating for Mothers' Depressive Symptoms Following Divorce.

Although divorce is typically stressful for mothers, the formation of post-divorce dating relationships can help to ease this stress. Unfortunately, research has yet to empirically consider children's post-divorce adjustment for mothers' wellbeing leading up to and during mothers' post-divorce dating. This study addresses the following questions: 1) How do children's problem behaviors predict mothers' depressive symptoms following divorce? 2) How do children's problem behaviors predict the quality of mothers' dating relationships and the rapport between children and mothers' dating partners? 3) How do children's problem behaviors, the quality of mothers' dating relationships, child-dating partner rapport, and length of mothers' dating simultaneously impact mothers' depressive symptoms? Data for this study comes from a longitudinal investigation of recently divorced mothers and their children (N = 232). Hierarchical linear models revealed that mothers experienced more depressive symptoms when their children exhibited more internalizing behaviors. Children's internalizing behaviors were negatively associated with the quality of mothers' dating relationships. When examining these variables simultaneously, increases in children's internalizing behaviors and decreases in relationship quality predicted increases in mothers' depressive symptoms. Promoting family-level adjustment appears best for mothers' wellbeing following divorce. Other implications for post-divorce adjustment are discussed.

Crisis Intervention with Children of Divorce

A significant proportion of children experience parental divorce all over the world. However, inconsistent results exist in literature concerning the influences of parental divorce on children. This article reviewed the risk factors making parental divorce to be a crisis, and also the protective factors. Interventions with three age groups shown to prevent or reduce children's post-divorce adjustment problems were discussed.

After the Marriage Is Over: Mothers' Separation Distress and Children's Postdivorce Adjustment

ObjectiveWe examine whether (direct effect) and how (indirect effect) residential mothers' postdivorce separation distress is associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors.BackgroundThe consequences of postdivorce separation distress for adults, and specifically parents, have been established. Because research has also identified interdependent associations between parents' and children's postdivorce adjustment, it is possible that parents' separation distress has negative implications for children's postdivorce adjustment as well.MethodThis study uses longitudinal, multimethod, multiinformant data from divorcing mothers and their children (N = 319 mother–child dyads). Families were recruited from divorce court records within 120 days of divorce filing. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques, path analysis, and mediation models were used to achieve the goals of the study.ResultsMothers' separation distress was significantly associated with increases in children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Mothers' co‐parenting conflict mediated the link between mothers' separation distress and children's internalizing but not externalizing behaviors. Ineffective parenting did not mediate the links between separation distress and children's internalizing or externalizing behaviors.ConclusionResidential mothers' postdivorce separation distress has direct and indirect implications for their children's postdivorce adjustment.ImplicationsProfessionals can promote postdivorce family adjustment by acknowledging the consequences of residential mothers' separation distress and assisting those who experience it. Practitioners can also use this study's findings to inform co‐parenting education programs.

Postdivorce Coparenting Typologies and Children's Adjustment

The authors performed a cluster analysis on data from 270 divorced or separated parents to classify their perceived coparental relationship with their ex‐spouse and test if parents' perceptions of their children's postdivorce adjustment differed based on their perceptions of their postdivorce coparental relationship. The cluster analysis resulted in three types of coparenting relationships: cooperative and involved, moderately engaged, and infrequent but conflictual. Despite the expectation that children fare better if their divorced parents' develop a cooperative coparenting relationship, the authors found that parents' reports of their children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors and their social skills did not significantly differ by type of postdivorce coparental relationships. Results, therefore, suggest that the direct influence of postdivorce coparenting on children's adjustment may not as robust as predicted in the literature.

Enhancing Youth Outcomes Following Parental Divorce: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the New Beginnings Program on Educational and Occupational Goals

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program for divorced families led to improvements in youth's educational goals and job aspirations 6 years following participation and tested whether several parenting and youth variables mediated the program effects. Participants were 240 youth aged 9 to 12 years at the initial assessment, and data were part of a randomized, experimental trial of a parenting skills preventive intervention targeting children's postdivorce adjustment. The results revealed positive effects of the program on youth's educational goals and job aspirations 6 years after participation for those who were at high risk for developing later problems at program entry. Further, intervention-induced changes in mother–child relationship quality and youth externalizing problems, internalizing problems, self-esteem, and academic competence at the 6-year follow-up mediated the effects of the program on the educational expectations of high-risk youth. Intervention-induced changes in youth externalizing problems and academic competence at the 6-year follow-up mediated the effects of the program on the job aspirations of high-risk youth.

Protecting Children From the Consequences of Divorce: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Parenting on Children’s Coping Processes

This study examines whether intervention-induced changes in mother-child relationship quality and discipline led to short-term (6 months) and long-term (6 years) changes in children's coping processes in a sample of 240 youth aged 9-12 years when assessed initially. Data were from a randomized, experimental trial of a parenting-focused preventive intervention designed to improve children's postdivorce adjustment. Three-wave prospective mediational analyses revealed that intervention-induced improvements in relationship quality led to increases in coping efficacy at 6 months and to increases in coping efficacy and active coping at 6 years. Tests of the mediated effects were significant for all 3 indirect paths. Results are discussed in terms of pathways to adaptive coping and implications for the implementation of preventive interventions targeting coping.

PROGRAMS FOR PROMOTING PARENTING OF RESIDENTIAL PARENTS: Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness

This article reviews prevention programs that target primary residential parents as change agents for improving children's postdivorce adjustment. First, we review parental risk and protective factors for children from divorced families, including parenting quality, parental mental health problems, interparental conflict, and contact with the nonresidential parent. Following a discussion of brief informational interventions, we describe the findings of evaluations of three multisession, skill‐building interventions for divorced parents. Impressive evidence is presented that parenting is a modifiable protective factor and that improving parenting leads to improvements in children's postdivorce adjustment. We then discuss, in greater detail, the New Beginnings Program, which we highlight because it has shown repeated, immediate effects on children's mental health outcomes as well as long‐term effects on a wide array of other meaningful outcomes, such as diagnosis of mental disorder in the past year, externalizing problems, alcohol and drug use, and academic performance. Also, mediational analyses have shown that program‐induced changes in parenting accounted for changes in mental health outcomes. The remainder of the article describes a research and action agenda that is needed to successfully implement the New Beginnings Program in domestic relations courts.

Children's “Wishes” in the Australian Family Court: Are they Wishful Thinking?

The aim of this article is to reflect on the current practices in family law in Australia in relation to children's participation in the divorce process and to ask whether the legal system is fully acknowledging the extent of children's psychological involvement. From the legislative perspective, children's “wishes” as a form of participation will be examined as one of the factors in determining the “best interests of the child” in residence and contact proceedings (formerly custody and access). Indeed, the narrow legal definition of divorce by its nature limits what is seen as a child's “best interests”. Therefore, this article will follow children beyond the legal limits of granting a divorce and consider children's post-divorce adjustment. The process for obtaining a divorce is often a significant legal (and psychological) event in the life of any family and children (and parents) must continue to “participate” in the aftermath of the legal process that has brought about family change.

Fear of abandonment as a mediator of the relations between divorce stressors and mother-child relationship quality and children's adjustment problems.

This study examines whether fear of abandonment mediates the prospective relations between divorce stressors and mother-child relationship quality and adjustment problems of children of divorce. Participants were 216 children, ages 8-12, and their primary residential mothers. Children reported on divorce stressors and fear of abandonment; mothers and children reported on mother-child relationship quality and internalizing and externalizing problems. Structural equation models indicated that Time 1 fear of abandonment mediated the relation between Time 1 divorce stressors and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Time 1 fear of abandonment also mediated the relation between Time 1 mother-child relationship quality and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment problems and interventions for divorced families are discussed.

The Influence of Divorce on Children

This paper is a review of children's postdivorce adjustment in relation to individual, familial, social and cultural contingencies. A systems perspective is adopted with children's adjustment being viewed as a dynamic ongoing process and causation perceived as circular. Research, interventive and treatment implications are discussed in this framework.

Maternal acceptance and consistency of discipline as buffers of divorce stressors on children's psychological adjustment problems.

This study examines whether two aspects of mothering--acceptance and consistency of discipline--buffer the effect of divorce stressors on adjustment problems in 678 children, ages 8 to 15, whose families had divorced within the past 2 years. Children reported on divorce stressors; both mothers and children reported on mothering and internalizing and externalizing problems. Multiple regressions indicate that for maternal report of mothering, acceptance interacted with divorce stressors in predicting both dimensions of adjustment problems, with the pattern of findings supporting a stress-buffering effect. For child report of mothering, acceptance, consistency of discipline, and divorce stressors interacted in predicting adjustment problems. The relation between divorce stressors and internalizing and externalizing problems is stronger for children who report low acceptance and low consistency of discipline than for children who report either low acceptance and high consistency of discipline or high acceptance and low consistency of discipline. Children reporting high acceptance and high consistency of discipline have the lowest levels of adjustment problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment and interventions for divorced families are discussed.

A Program for Educating Parents about the Effects of Divorce and Conflict on Children: An Initial Evaluation

The present study explored the impact and consumer satisfaction associated with participation in a parent education program that specifically focused on divorce and parental conflict. The kids in divorce and separation program (k.i.d.s.) is a four-hour parent-focused psychoeducational program. The impact and consumer satisfaction associated with participation in the program were examined by comparing a treatment group of parents who participated in the program with an alternative treatment control group of parents who participated in another educational program for parents concerning general parenting and discipline information/techniques. Results indicated that participation in the program has positive effects on parents' self-reported knowledge and behavior with regard to interparental conflict, including their self-reports of the conflict behavior of non-participating ex-- spouses. Moreover, participants also reported a high level of consumer satisfaction with the program. The implications of the results for the potential value of parent educational programs for divorced couples are discussed, and directions for future research are outlined. Key Words: divorce, divorce education, family prevention, marital conflict, parent education, psychoeducational programs. One in two marriages will end in divorce, and 40% of children born in this decade will experience their parents' divorce, according to recent NCHS statistics (National Center for Health Statistics, Petersen & Steinman, 1994). There is an abundant documentation of short- and long-term negative effects of divorce on children (Emery, 1988; Hodges, 1991), with the rate of clinically significant mental health problems as much as 300% higher in children from divorced families than in children from intact families (Hetherington, 1993; Johnston, 1994). Interparental conflict is linked with children's adjustment problems, whether in intact or divorced families (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Unfortunately, interparental conflict, typically one of the primary reasons for divorce, does not end with separation or even the final order of divorce (Camara & Resnick, 1988; Emery, 1982, 1988; Jouriles, Murphy, & O'Leary, 1989). Research is increasingly pointing to the role parental conflict plays in contributing to children's post-divorce adjustment (Amato & Keith, 1991; Camara & Resnick, 1989; Emery, 1982; Johnston, 1994; Kurdek & Berg, 1983; Long & Forehand, 1987; Long, Slater, Forehand, & Fauber, 1988). Interparental conflict may continue to impact the children negatively after divorce, and prevent parents from developing an effective co-parenting relationship. Hetherington, Cox, and Cox (1976) reported that 66% of parental interactions two months after divorce were characterized by conflict and anger. In a study conducted by Ahrons (1981), 50% of the divorced parents interviewed perceived their relationship to be conflictual, with 34% of women and 21 % of men perceiving their relationship as often or always conflictual. However, Long et al. (1988) found no differences between children from divorced and intact families when post-divorce parental conflict was reduced (Hodges, 1991). Thus, an emerging consensus is that the nature and extent of conflict preceding and continuing after separation/divorce is a primary factor related to children's coping with and adjustment to divorce (Amato & Keith, 1991; Camara & Resnick, 1988; Emery, 1982, 1988; Long et al., 1988). Despite the distressing nature of interparental conflict and the challenges of divorce for parents and children, one should be cautious not to over-emphasize the negative. Parents can find constructive ways for handling their inevitable disagreements and disputes following separation/divorce. At the least, constructive conflict management styles are far less distressing for children, and may have minimal, if any, lasting negative effects (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Cummings & Wilson, in press). …

Understanding Children's Divorce Adjustment from an Ecological Perspective

Using an ecological perspective, the comprehensive effect of divorce variables on children's post-divorce adjustment was investigated. The microsystem, exosystem and overall composite scores accounted for significant proportions of variance in children's self-reported maladjustment and self-esteem, but not in parents' reports of children's maladjustment. The implications for preventive interventions are discussed.

PLANNING FOR POSTDIVORCE FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

This article proposes that the focus of child custody evaluation and mediation needs to be broadened beyond custody arrangement to consideration of the range of factors that may impact on postdivorce relationships. A review of current social science literature shows that factors such as quality of parent‐child relationships and level of parental conflict may be as important as residence schedule in influencing children's postdivorce adjustment. The article offers strategies for involving parents in drafting agreements to guide relationships with each other and with the children. The goal is for parents to thoughtfully tailor relationships and parenting practices to children's needs during the transition from a one‐household family to a new family plan.

Interventions for children of divorce: toward greater integration of research and action.

A number of child-, family-, and system-focused interventions have been designed to prevent or reduce the negative effects of divorce on children. This article critically evaluates these intervention efforts by examining (a) their relation to basic research on the processes proposed to mediate children's postdivorce adjustment and (b) evaluation studies assessing the effectiveness of various programs. Although interventions address some of the factors proposed to mediate children's adaptation to divorce, the interplay between interventions and basic research on children's postdivorce adaptation is limited. Moreover, some intervention efforts appear to be beneficial, but most lack empirical documentation of their efficacy. This analysis leads to several recommendations for basic and applied research and for improving the response of the mental health field to the problems experienced by many children from divorcing families.

Family functions and children's postdivorce adjustment.

Data on school-age children of divorced parents were examined to determine which dimensions of family dynamics were most associated with the children's socioemotional adjustment. Those factors found to be most significant were family roles, behavior control, and affective involvement, as well as children's reaction to and insight into the divorce, and conflict in the home after the divorce. Implications for parent education and early intervention are discussed.

The Long Shadow of Marital Conflict: A Model of Children's Postdivorce Adjustment

The Long Shadow of Marital Conflict: A Model of Children's Postdivorce Adjustment

Predictors of children's postdivorce adjustment.

Six hypotheses to explain how divorce may affect the trajectory of child development were tested using standardized measures and sociodemographic data. Correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed that the parent adjustment hypothesis received the strongest support. Boys appeared sensitive to events and behavior in their mothers' lives, while girls seemed attuned to mothers' internal states.

The Role of Selected Family Environment Factors in Children's Post-Divorce Adjustment

This article reports findings of the NASP-KSU nationwide study of the impact of divorce on children. Results are based on a multifactored assessment of children's adjustment using a number of social, academic, and health criteria. The role of selected family environment factors in facilitating children's post-divorce adjustment is examined, utilizing the nationwide sample of 341 divorced family children. Concurrent and longitudinal predictions of children's adjustment from selected home environment factors provide valuable information for professionals working with divorced families. The significance of family interpersonal relationships, childrearing styles, parental satisfaction, and home routines for facilitating children's post-divorce adjustment is discussed.

Assessing Dimensions of Single Parenting:

The role of the parent-child relationship has been shown to be a major determinant of children's post-divorce adjustment. This study reflects an effort to develop and validate an instrument which assesses five dimensions of single parenting. Problem solving skills, parental warmth, discipline procedures, parent rules, enthusiasm for parenting and parent support systems were chosen as factors to be assessed in the Single Parenting Questionnaire because of their demonstrated relationship with child adjustment. Items were purposefully worded to assess these dimensions. Reliability coefficients and scale inter-correlations were calculated based on the responses of two hundred thirty-nine divorced and custodial parents to insure maximum between-scale heterogeneity and maximum within-scale homogeneity. Alpha coefficients ranging from .59 to .85 for the five scales the composite Total scale were demonstrated. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability coefficients ranging from .54 to .71 and .00 to .59 and with mea...