This study examined the association between postdivorce coparenting patterns and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior. Children after parental divorce increasingly grow up in shared residence arrangements, making postdivorce coparenting much more pertinent. The Coparenting Behavior Questionnaire was used to investigate the perceptions of 251 Dutch adolescents regarding postdivorce coparenting behaviors. Latent class analysis was used to identify coparenting patterns, and associations with adolescent outcomes were examined. Four distinct postdivorce coparenting patterns were identified: cooperative, negatively engaged, negatively disengaged, and average. Adolescents of parents with a cooperative pattern reported the least amount of internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas adolescents with negatively engaged parents reported the most internalizing problems. In line with family systems theory, interactions in the coparental subsystem are associated with adolescent adjustment and can therefore be viewed as both a risk and protective factor.

The present study adopted an ecological perspective, and examined effects of sense of belonging to multiple contexts in relation to adolescent adjustment, as well as possible differences between adolescents from intact and divorced families. Self‐report questionnaires were used to investigate perceptions of family, school, peer, and neighborhood belonging among 969 adolescents. Results showed that mean level differences in belonging exist based on family structure, and that levels of family and neighborhood belonging vary between post‐divorce maternal and paternal households. For all adolescents, sense of belonging predicted self‐reported well‐being, internalizing, and externalizing problems. Belonging was found to partly explain the relation between divorce and adjustment. Improving adolescents’ belonging could therefore be an important step in ensuring a better adjustment post‐divorce.

Abstract. A considerable number of children face the divorce or separation of their parents globally every year. As parental divorce is often accompanied by changes in the home and social environment of adolescents, they may experience a diminished sense of belonging to one or multiple social contexts, such as the family, school, peer group, or neighborhood, which can, in turn, influence their post-divorce adjustment. To gain insight into the mechanisms and conditions that affect adolescents’ sense of belonging following parental divorce, we have reviewed empirical research from multiple disciplines from a bio-ecological perspective. This review has shown that adolescents’ sense of belonging can be an important protective factor after parental divorce, and is affected by processes at the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrolevel. However, extensive knowledge on the determinants and mechanisms that affect adolescents’ belonging in the context of divorce remains lacking. Recommendations for future research are given, as a more thorough understanding of the factors that promote the belonging of adolescents in divorced families can be an important next step in promoting a higher quality of life for adolescents after parental divorce.

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