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Longevity following the experience of parental divorce.

An archival prospective design was used to study mediating and moderating variables for the association between parental divorce and increased mortality risk, using a sub-group (n = 1183) of individuals from the US Terman Life Cycle Study covering the period 1921-2000. In childhood, both socioeconomic status (SES) and family psychosocial environment were related to parental divorce but did little to explain its effects. The higher mortality risk associated with experiencing parental divorce was ameliorated among individuals (especially men) who achieved a sense of personal satisfaction by mid-life. Behaviorally, smoking was the strongest mediator of the divorce-mortality link. This study extends previous work on the long-term effects of parental divorce and reveals some reasons why the stress of parental divorce in childhood need not necessarily lead to negative later-life outcomes.

Child↗

Can marital selection explain the differences in health between married and divorced people? From a longitudinal study of a British birth cohort.

In view of the rising divorce rates, the impact of divorce on health has an increasing importance in public health. The differentials in health between the married and the divorced may be explained by 'marital selection' and 'marital protection'. Using longitudinal data from a study of the 1958 British birth cohort, factors that select people into divorce were identified from the areas of socio-economic status, health, and attractiveness, which included physical attractiveness, health-related behaviour and temperament. Evidence for both positive and adverse selection is found. The different sets of selection factors for females and males appear to be in line with gender role expectations. The health differentials between married and divorced men were weak and can be explained away by the selection factors. Having controlled for the selection effects, there were still significant associations between divorce and physical and psychological health in women. Though these unexplained differentials cannot be definitely interpreted as the consequences of marital dissolution, this interpretation remains plausible.

Adult↗

Marital status effects on health: are there differences between never married women and divorced and separated women?

To test whether the effects of marital status on health differ between never married women and divorced and separated women, this study utilizes prospective panel data for a large national sample of non-institutionalized young women in the U.S. (the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women). The women were aged 24-34 at the beginning of two successive five-year follow-up intervals (1978-1983 and 1983-1988). The health effects of marital status were evaluated in regressions which assessed the relationships between initial marital status and subsequent health trends in each follow-up interval. In the first follow-up interval, never married women tended to have worse health trends than divorced and separated women for physical impairments and for overall health problems. However, there were no differences between never married women and divorced and separated women in health trends for psychosomatic symptoms in either follow-up interval or for any health measure in the second follow-up interval. Our analyses of cross-sectional data showed few significant differences in health between never married women and divorced and separated women. Taken together, the evidence from our study and previous studies suggests that differences between never married women and divorced and separated women may vary by age and/or cohort. Evidence for the 1970s and 1980s suggests that, among older women, divorced and separated women may have experienced more harmful health effects than never married women; however, among younger women, this difference may have been absent or possibly reversed.

Adult↗

Getting ready for the marriage market? The association between divorce risks and investments in attractive body mass among married Europeans.

This article explores to what extent married middle-aged individuals in Europe are governed by the risk of experiencing divorce, when shaping their physical appearance. The main result is that divorce risks, proxied by national divorce rates, are negatively connected to body mass index (BMI) among married individuals but unrelated to BMI among singles. Hence, it seems that married people in societies where divorce risks are high are more inclined to invest in their outer appearance. One interpretation is that high divorce rates make married people prepare for a potential divorce and future return to the marriage market.

Adult↗

Role of maternal functioning and parenting skills in adolescent functioning following parental divorce.

While divorce has been associated with impaired child functioning, the mechanisms within the divorce process leading to such an outcome have rarely been examined. The following hypothesis was examined: Divorce is associated with poor parental adjustment or disrupts parenting behavior, or both, which leads to poor adolescent functioning. Subjects were 121 and 93 young adolescents from intact and recently divorced families, respectively, and their mothers and teachers. Mothers completed measures assessing parental conflict and depression, observers coded parenting skills during a mother-adolescent interaction, and teachers completed measures assessing adolescent functioning. Although the magnitude of differences was not large, analyses of variance indicated that the divorced sample was functioning poorer than the married sample on all measures except interparental conflict. Path analysis suggested that parental functioning and parenting skills play a role in adolescent functioning following divorce.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

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

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 are 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 divorced 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.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Personality and divorce: a genetic analysis.

M. McGue and D.T. Lykken (1992) found that divorce risk was, to a substantial degree, genetically mediated; prior research has identified numerous social and psychological factors that affect divorce risk (G.C. Kitson, K.B. Barbi, & M.J. Roach, 1985). The present study attempted to link these domains by examining the extent to which genetic influences on one such psychological factor, personality, explain divorce risk heritability. A sample of adult twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry completed a marital history questionnaire and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, 1982). Positive Emotionality and Negative Emotionality factors were positively related to divorce risk, whereas Constraint was negatively related. In women and men, respectively, 30% and 42% of the heritability of divorce risk consisted of genetic factors affecting personality and divorce risk correlated largely as a result of these common genetic influences.

Adult↗

Distress among young adults from divorced families.

Researchers find that most children from divorced families function normally, but some clinicians assert that young people are disturbed even many years after a divorce. These accounts may be less discrepant than they appear, because research typically focuses on notably problematic behavior (disorder), whereas case studies emphasize more subtle inner turmoil (distress). In Study 1 college students reported painful feelings, beliefs, and memories about their parents divorce on a reliable new measure, but they also reported accepting the divorce and having few psychological symptoms. Distress about family life was greater among students from divorced than from married families. Study 2 replicated these findings in a community sample of young people from low-income divorced families. In both studies, greater distress was associated with children's residence, frequency of contact with fathers, interparental conflict, and psychological symptoms.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Transfers among divorced couples: evidence and interpretation.

An analysis of the economic impact of divorce settlements in the United States is presented using data for a white cohort taken from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. "The effects of spouses' incomes on the divorce transfer are estimated and used to simulate the welfare effects of divorce on husbands, wives, and children under alternative assumptions about marriage contracts and the ability of a couple to continue coordinating resources in the aftermath of divorce. We find a positive (negative) relationship between divorce transfers and the growth of husband's (wife's) earnings during marriage. The estimated expenditure on children in the divorce state is only half the accustomed level during marriage."

Adolescent↗

Divorce for women after midlife.

In spite of widespread interest in both aging and divorce, relatively little research has joined these topics. This study used data from the U.S. Census, Vital Statistics, and Current Population Survey to determine current divorce patterns for women aged 40+, project marriage and divorce experiences of future cohorts of elderly women, and consider the socioeconomic correlates of divorce for middle-aged and older women. Given current marriage, divorce, and widowhood rates, the findings indicate a marked decline in the proportion of future elderly women who will be married or widowed, and a dramatic increase in the proportion who will be divorced. Further, the data show that the socioeconomic well-being of divorcées is significantly below that of widowed or married women.

Adult↗

Personality and multiple divorce. A prospective study.

A review of cross-sectional and prospective research in both normal and clinical samples suggests that increased risk of divorce is associated with socially nonconforming, impulsive, and stimulus-seeking personality traits. This exploratory study addresses the question of whether individuals who divorce more than once are especially likely to exhibit such general personality dispositions. Subjects were male physicians (N = 431) who had completed the MMPI before entering medical school and who were followed up more than two decades later by a mail questionnaire that inquired about their health status, health practices, subjective well-being, and marital history. As indicated by higher scores on the MMPI Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale and greater likelihood of concurrently reporting several negative health practices (e.g., cigarette smoking), multiply divorced physicians did tend to exhibit greater nonconforming, impulsive, and risk-taking tendencies than both never-divorced and once-divorced physicians. Possible social-psychological processes linking such personality dispositions to the risk of multiple divorce are discussed, along with suggestions for further research.

Adult↗

Cognitive moderators of children's adjustment to stressful divorce events: the role of negative cognitive errors and positive illusions.

This study examined whether children's cognitive appraisal biases moderate the impact of stressful divorce-related events on psychological adjustment in 355 children ages 9 to 12, whose families had experienced divorce within the past 2 years. Multiple regression indicated that endorsement of negative cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderates the relations between stressful divorce events and self- and maternal reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, but only for older children. Positive illusions buffer the effects of stressful divorce events on child-reported depression and mother-reported externalizing problems. Implications of these results for theories of stress and coping, as well as for interventions for children of divorced families, are discussed.

Adult↗

The personality of children prior to divorce: a prospective study.

In a longitudinal study, the personalities of children from intact families at ages 3, 4, and 7 were reliably assessed by independent sets of raters using Q-items reflecting important psychological characteristics of children. A number of these families subsequently experienced divorce. The behavior of boys was found, as early as 11 years prior to parental separation or formal dissolution of marriage, to be consistently affected by what can be presumed to be predivorce familial stress. The behavior of boys from subsequently divorcing families was characterized by undercontrol of impulse, aggression, and excessive energy prior to parental divorce. The behavior of girls from subsequently divorcing families was found to be notably less affected by the stresses in families prior to parental divorce. The prospective relations afforded by the longitudinal analyses suggest that the behavior of conflicting, inaccessible parents during the preseparation period may have serious consequences for personality development, especially for boys. Hence, some characteristics of children commonly seen to be a consequence of divorce may be present prior to marital dissolution.

Adolescent↗

Adolescent adjustment and well-being: effects of parental divorce and distress.

This study investigates the long-term effects of parental divorce on adolescent psychological adjustment and well-being, and to what extent the effects are accounted for by parental psychological distress. Data were collected among 8,984 Norwegian adolescents (13-19 years) and their parents. Outcome variables were symptoms of anxiety and depression, subjective well-being, and three areas of school problems. Parental divorce was found to be associated with both higher mean levels and larger variances in adolescent problems. Divorce and parental distress contributed independently to adolescent distress, supporting the notion of "double exposure" effects. The prevalence of adolescents with substantial distress symptoms was 14% among those with non-distressed non-divorced parents and 30% among those with divorced and distressed parents. In general effects remained when controlling for demographic factors. Long-term effects of divorce on symptoms of anxiety and depression were stronger among girls than among boys.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Academic achievement of children of divorced parents.

This study investigated the academic achievement of 242 pupils whose parents were divorced and 713 pupils whose parents were neither divorced nor separated. The subjects were in the age range of 13 to 17 yr., with a mean age of 15.6 yr. and they were chosen at random from the total Standard 7 population of Transkei, South Africa. A questionnaire was administered to 1,021 pupils to identify the children of parents divorced or separated and neither divorced nor separated. Analysis of variance indicated that the academic achievement of children whose parents were divorced or separated was significantly lower than that of the children whose parents were neither divorced nor separated.

Achievement↗

Divorce and remarriage in England and Wales.

This short article provides a summary of the demographic consequences of divorce over the past two decades: the growth in the proportion of the population who are divorced; the increase in the age at divorce and the ageing of the divorced population; and the decline in the rates of remarriage after divorce. In addition, the extent and timing of remarriage after divorce are investigated, as well as the corresponding features of remarriage after being widowed. The differentials between men and women are presented and discussed throughout the article.

Adolescent↗

[From program to metaphor--managing the needs of children in a separation or divorce process involving their parents].

In German-speaking regions there are several independent intervention programs, derived from concepts originating in the USA, which are designed to assist children whose parents are separated or divorced. Two of these programs will be presented here. Consistent with the thematic implication that divorce entails trauma and stress, the childrens' need of advice and help is placed at the conceptual center of the intervention. This results in a behavioral-cognitive training program, which should enable children to overcome the stress of their situation. In contrast to these two programs, an understanding of divorce may be achieved, through phenomenological analysis, which gives due consideration to the various aspects and meanings of the divorce process. The concept of intervention derived from this approach is to assist children in further developing their own search for solutions, focused on the parents-child-relation. The primary emphasis of this approach is not the childrens' difficulty in dealing with their parents' separation and divorce, but rather their own attempt to deal with the problem, as is visible in the metaphor of their spontaneous descriptions and images of experiences and events. The central concept of the proposed course is the further development of this creative process in the form of a dynamic-communicative group happening. Furthermore it is shown how children can be assisted in a practical way, and encouraged to create their individual and personally adequate solution to the experience of divorce.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Perspectives on the divorce process: parental perceptions of the legal system and its impact on family relations.

Through semistructured interviews, divorcing parents provide a consumer perspective of the legal process of divorce discussed in law and mental health literature. The parents offer a heightened awareness of families' basic needs within the legal system that may otherwise be overlooked by professionals. This article focuses on narrative accounts provided by 41 divorcing parents to describe both their positive and negative experiences with the legal system and court-related professionals. Although many parents entered the divorce process with hopes for a fair and reasonable experience and outcome, only 12 percent of the parents ended the process with positive expectations. Parents conveyed feelings of a lack of power and control over divorce outcomes. The responses from parents provide valuable insight into how reforms of the legal system can be structured best to increase the quality of the process and ameliorate potentially destructive effects of divorce on the family.

Attitude↗