Long-term impact of parental divorce on optimism and trust: Changes in general assumptions or narrow beliefs?

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to examine the long-term impact of parental divorce on beliefs about the self and others. In Study 1, college-aged children of divorce and students from intact families did not differ on 8 basic assumptions or on measures of depression. Those whose parents had divorced, however, were less optimistic about the success of their own future marriages. Assumptions about the benevolence of people best predicted the marital optimism of the parental divorce group, but not of the intact family group. In Study 2, assumptions about the benevolence of people were explored in terms of trust beliefs. College-aged children of divorce and a matched sample from intact homes differed only on marriage-related beliefs, not on generalized trust. Children of divorce reported less trust of a future spouse and were less optimistic about marriage. Exploratory analyses found that continuous conflict in family of origin adversely affected all levels of trust.

The Longitudinal Course of Marital Quality and Stability: A Review of Theory, Method and Research

“…<…> Особенности происхождения и личностные черты, привнесенные супругами в брак, также влияют на адаптивные процессы. Например, самоотчеты супругов об их детстве в родительской семье связаны с массой специфических жалоб на их соб-ственный брак [Overall, Henry, Woodward, 1974] и на отношение к институту брака в целом [Franklin, Janoff-Bulman, Roberts, 1990]. Исследования жизненного пути (индивида), которые проводились в течение более чем 20 лет, выявили, что дети из дистрессовых или распавшихся браков имеют более низкие социальные навы-ки как взрослые [Franz, McCleland, Weinberger, 1991;Koestner, Franz, Weinberger, 1990].…”

The Influence of Suffering, Social Class, and Social Power on Prosociality: An Empirical Review

“…Other researchers found that children who have experienced parental divorce were pessimistic about their future relationship outcomes with their partners and that these pessimistic views were tied to their assumptions about people and their lack of benevolence. In addition to the aforementioned inding, the same researchers found that trust beliefs of these children were diminished when they experienced continuous conlicts within their families [8].…”

“…Beyond direct associations with psychopathology, it was posited that some individuals who had a brush with adversity develop negative perceptions of people and the environment around them. While those who are free from past trauma tend to hold beliefs that the world is just, meaningful, and benevolent, those who were exposed to adverse life events often exhibit a diminished belief in a benevolent or meaningful world characterized by virtue [8]. In one instance, Poulin [9] found that exposure to violence-related events predicted subsequent decrease in benevolence beliefs.…”

Financial shocks and the erosion of interpersonal trust: Evidence from longitudinal data

“…Alesina and La Ferrara (2002) suggest that divorce or separation can significantly decrease interpersonal trust levels, using cross-sectional data from the US between 1974 and 1994 (also see Franklin et al, 1990, or King, 2002, in that regard). However, in our panel data estimation including individual-level fixed effects none of the derived coefficients turns statistically significant on conventional levels.…”