Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1986

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Leonard Handler

Committee Members

Wesley Morgan, Gary Peterson, Robert Wahler, Bill Swann

Abstract

The role of family relationships and interaction patterns in the divorce process has often been neglected. This study examined how the mother-child, father-child, and mother-father relationships affect child adjustment. This study addressed two essential hypotheses: that the divorce process is not inevitably pathological, and that children's adjustment is affected by the quality of family relationships.

The sample included 15 divorced and 15 intact families, with children from 9-12 years of age. All divorced families were mother custody and had been separated for at least two years. Each family was administered two measures of family relationships and two measures of child adjustment. In addition, each child's teacher completed an assessment of school adjustment.

The results were found to strongly support the hypothesis that for this age group, after a period of at least two years of restabilization, the divorce process does not generally result in impaired parent-child relationships or child adjustment. There was no significant difference between divorced and intact family groups on the quality of parent-child relationships or on child adjustment measures of social competence, parent-rated behavior problems, or ego development. The divorced group did exhibit a higher level of teacher-rated behavior problems.

Family relationship variables were found to have a varied effect on child adjustment. The father-child relationship was found to be a good predictor of social competence in children regardless of the family's marital status. However, the importance of the father-child relationship to the child's development of social competence was found to increase dramatically in the divorced families. In addition, the results suggest that even after two years, a child's school adjustment is still likely affected by the divorce process. The results also suggest that positive parent-child relationships are possible in the post-divorce family, even when there is a conflictual interparent relationship. Treatment and judicial implications drawn from these results are discussed.

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