Long-term Effects Of Divorce Research Articles

Long-term effects of divorce on children: a developmental vulnerability model.

Research and clinical work with children of divorce have focused primarily on parental separation as a traumatic event and its effects on children as a crisis situation. The present paper, based on clinical experience, considers potential long-term problems of these children in key developmental areas: handling anger and aggression, separation-individuation, and gender identity. Implications for prevention and service delivery are presented.

The Long-Term Effects of Divorce

Supportive services in the form of concurrent groups for mothers and children experiencing the long-term negative effects of divorce are described. The general goal of the Single Parent Project was to provide parents and children an environment within which they could experience a cohesive feeling of support and sharing, and the opportunity to learn new communication and problem-solving skills. Each group (parent and child) was run by a graduate student. Clinical supervision was conjoint, helping to maintain conceptual unity of each family system. Issues presented by mothers or children were used to develop strategies for subsequent meetings. Although this project explored the effectiveness of a variety of interventions, two deserve special mention: (1) All siblings aged 4 through 12 were included, with no identification of a problem child. (2) Mothers served as co-therapists in the children's group. Problems inherent in a pilot study of this nature are discussed. A primary benefit to both groups was soci...

Long-term effects of divorce and remarriage on the adjustment of children

YANCY, W SAM M.D., Editor; FAIRCHILD, MUKI A.C.S.W.; THOMPSON, ROBERT J. JR. PHD.; WORLEY, GORDON M.D.

Long-Term Effects of Divorce and Remarriage on the Adjustment of Children

This paper presents the results of a 6-year follow-up of a longitudinal study of the effects of divorce on parents and children. It was found that, whereas divorce had more adverse effects for boys, remarriage was more disruptive for girls. The stability of the long-term adjustment of boys and girls differed, with externalizing being more stable in boys and internalizing more stable in girls. Children in divorced families encountered more negative life changes than children in nondivorced families, and these negative life changes were associated with behavior problems 6 years following divorce. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry , 24, 5:518–530, 1985.

Long-term effects of divorce on parent–child relationships.

The present investigation studied the long-term effects of divorce on college subjects' perceptions of their relationships with their parents. One hundred introductory psychology students from families that had experienced divorce 7 or more years previously and 141 introductory psychology students from continuously intact families completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing t.heir perceptions of their relationship with their parents. The findings indicated that, although there was considerable variation from person to person, subjects from divorced families perceived their relationships with their parents, and particularly their fathers, less positively than subjects from intact families. It was also found that these potentially negative consequences of divorce were attenuated by subjects' recall of a healthy predivorce family life, by a more successful adjustment on the part of the child before the divorce, and by a higher quality relationship between the ex-spouses after the divorce. These findings support the notion that active involvement on the part of the father and added stresses placed on the mother after the divorce were the critical determinants of the perceived quality of the current parent-child relationships. Implications for future research are discussed. The incidence of divorce in the United States has increased greatly over the past 2 decades. It is estimated that over 40% of new marriages will ultimately end in divorce; over 60% of these will involve children (Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, Note 1). It is also expected that about 30% of all children born in the 1980s will experience a parental divorce before they reach age 18 (Bane, 1979). Several investigators (Berg & Kelly, 1979; Felnar, Farber, & Primavera, 1980; Hess & Camera, 1979; Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Kurdeck, Blisk, & Siesky, 1981; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980; Weiss, 1975) have identified divorce as a major life stressor to all family members and as a significant transition period for the family. Most investigators have studied the short-term consequences of divorce; research into the long-term effects of divorce on family members has been particularly scarce. Much of the literature on the effects of divorce on parent-child relationships is composed of conceptual articles based on clini

Long-term effects of divorce on parent-child relationships.

Long-term effects of divorce on parent-child relationships.