The effects of divorce: A research review with a developmental perspective

Two groups of disadvantaged mothers and children were formed on the basis of the mothers' histories of relationships with men. Comparisons of the groups when the children were 24, 42, and 64 months old and at first grade suggest that initial differences in maternal support for the child eventually led to differences in mother-child interaction and in ratings of child behavior by mothers and teachers.

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“…'-multivariate F not significant (F=1.08[14,89Jp=.38). 2 -multivariate F approached significance (F=2.10 [4,99] p=.08).…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Maternal relationship history as an indicator of developmental risk.

Pianta

Egeland

Hyatt

1986

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

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“…One theme in recent reviews of how children are affected by their parents' divorce is the identification of factors related to divorce adjustment in particular and to personal adjustment in general (Hetherington, 1979;Lamb, 1977;Longfellow, 1979;Magrab, 1978;Rohrlich, Rainer, Berg-Cross, & Berg-Cross, 1977). Children's age has repeatedly been identified as a strong correlate of divorce adjustment, and information is available on preschoolers' through adolescents' reactions to parental separation McDermott, 1970;Sorosky, 1977;Wallerstein & Kelly, 1974, 1976, 1980.'…”

Section: Wright State Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlates of children's long-term adjustment to their parents' divorce.

Kurdek

Blisk²,

Siesky³

1981

Developmental Psychology

111

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Consideration of current divorce rates leads to the conclusion that an appreciable number of chilclren will be growing up in single-parent-headed households. Hetherington (1979), for example, reports that 40 to 50 percent of children born in the 1970s will spend some time living in a single-parent family. The sheer number of children affected by divorce warrants a close examination of how children's development is affected by dramatic changes in the family system, a:; well as of what factors are involved in optimal adjustment to these changes.The literature relevant both to children's divorce experiences and to factors related to children's divorce adjustment is scattered in journals across the areas of developmental psychology, clinical psychology, family law, social work, and family sociology. Recently, Kurdek (1981) attempted to summarize this information from an integrative perspective. A major premise of this perspective was that children's divorce-related experiences need to be understoodThe authors would like to thank Marilyn Baumer, Nancy Hickey, and Donna Krile for their assistance in data collection and analysis. L. A Kurdek (Ed) Chddrm ond Ilzuorct New Directions for Child De\,elopmen!. no. 19 San Franiisco Jnrscy-Bass. March 1903 47 48in terms of hierarchically embedded cultural, social, familial, and psychological contexts. Respectively, these contexts focus attention on (1) cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding modern family life, (2) both the stability of the postdivorce environment and the social supports available to the restructured single-parent family, (3) the nature of family interaction in the preand postseparation periods, and (4) the child's individual competencies for dealing with stress.While progress has been made in the integration of existing studies on the nature and correlates of children's adjustment to parental divorce, little attention has been directed to the congruence among different sources of information on children's divorce adjustment. Parents typically have provided assessments of children's divorce reactions, while children themselves have not been interviewed routinely. Given evidence that parents and children's sources of information may not be concordant (Fulton, 1979; Kurdek, Blisk, and Siesky, 1981; Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980), our efforts have been directed toward developing self-report divorce adjustment measures for children.How children themselves appraise divorce-related events may be an integral component of their adjustment (compare Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend, 1974). Previous studies of children's divorce reactions (for example, Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980) have identified several areas of concern for children whose parents have separated or divorced. These include children's understanding of divorce as an interpersonal process, their hopes for parental reconciliation, their fears of abandonment, their assignments of blame for divorce, their fears of negative peer reactions, and their negative evaluations of their parents and themselves. These t...

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“…It represents the various competencies the individual child has for dealing with stresses occasioned by the divorce. For both clinical and nonclinical samples of children, developmental status has consistently been found to be related to both the quantity and the quality of children's divorce adjustment (Cantor, 1979;Gardner, 1976;Hetherington, 1979;Lamb, 1977;Longfellow, 1979;Magrab, 1978;Rohrlich, Ranier, Berg-Cross, & Berg-Cross, 1977;Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). While parental divorce is a stressful life event at all developmental levels (Coddington, 1972;Yamamoto, 1979), older children generally have higher levels of divorce adjustment (Kurdek et al, in press).…”

Section: The Ontogenic System: Intraindividual Factors For Coping Wit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrative perspective on children's divorce adjustment.

Kurdek¹

1981

American Psychologist

114

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Children's adjustment to their parents' divorce is discussed as an interaction among four components: (a) current beliefs, values, and'attitudes surrounding modern family life (the macrosystem), (b) social supports available to reduce stresses associated with single parenting and the stability of the pqstseparation environment (the exosystem), (c) the nature of pre-and postseparation family functioning and support systems available to the child (the microsystem), and (d) children's^ individual psychological competencies for dealing with stress (the ontogenic system). Research related to each of the components is summarized, and relevant problems and issues are discussed. Interactions among the four components are briefly outlined, and guidelines for future research are provided.

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The effects of divorce: A research review with a developmental perspective

Cited by 21 publications

References 14 publications

Maternal relationship history as an indicator of developmental risk.

Maternal relationship history as an indicator of developmental risk.

Correlates of children's long-term adjustment to their parents' divorce.

An integrative perspective on children's divorce adjustment.

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