The Challenge Model of children's adjustment to parental divorce: Explaining favorable postdivorce outcomes in children.

Abstract

This definition suggests that children may develop strengths as a result of attempting to adjust to their parents' divorce. More specifically, they may develop skills or abilities to meet new challenges and/or they may develop new self-cognitions as a result of mastering the new challenges.Gately and Schwebel (in press) reviewed studies that reported favorable outcomes in children following parental divorce:

Evaluation of a school-based intervention programme for South African children of divorce

“…In the first evaluation (Pedro-Carroll & Cowen, 1985) children"s self-perceptions and their attitudes about divorce did not show any significant changes across groups (Grych & Fincham, 1992) Children"s Adjustment to Parental Divorce suggests that children may develop certain skills or abilities to meet the challenges brought on by their Parents" divorce. As a result of mastering these skills, children may also develop new self-cognitions (Gately & Schwebel, 1991). With this model in mind and the mean time since divorce at five and seven years for the experimental and control group respectively, it is possible that the lack of significant results can be attributed to the fact that most participants had already developed and mastered certain skills to help them cope with their parents" divorce.…”

L’adaptation de l’enfant à la suite de la séparation : étude exploratoire d’un programme préventif

“…Selon une étude menée sur un échantillon représentatif de 1 197 enfants, la séparation a des effets à long terme, ainsi que l'indiquent des mesures de la performance scolaire, de la détresse psychologique et des troubles comportementaux, mesures prises auprès des parents, des enseignants et des enfants eux-mêmes (Allison et Furstenberg, 1989). Gately et Schwebel (1991) postulent que des interventions ayant pour objectifs d'améliorer les ressources matérielles accessibles aux familles monoparentales et de favoriser la continuité de l'engagement de chacun des parents auprès de l'enfant devraient avoir des résultats positifs quant à l'adaptation de l'enfant à la suite de la séparation. Une relation de qualité avec chacun de ses parents est d'ailleurs associée à l'adaptation de l'enfant à la suite de la séparation (Ahrons, 1981 ;Brown et al, 1991 ;Careau et Cloutier, 1990 ;Drolet et Cloutier, 1992 ;Fishel et Scanzoni, 1989 ;Masheter, 1990 ;Wallerstein et Kelly, 1980), une telle relation étant constituée de chaleur et d'empathie aussi bien que d'un contrôle directif des comportements et des apprentissages de l'enfant (Cloutier, 1985).…”

Retrospective reports of family-of-origin divorce and abuse and college student's pre-parenthood cognitions

“…Positive, negative, or neutral cognitions that individuals develop about their abuse experiences and other family issues prior to getting married or becoming a parent may influence the probability with which negative events are replicated across generations (Willetts-Bloom and Nock, 1992;Gately and Schwebel, 1991). For example, individuals who subjectively label themselves as abused may be at increased risk of subsequent victimization when compared to equally victimized individuals who do not label themselves as abused (Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al, 1995).…”