Cross-Sex and Same-Sex Family Alliances: Immediate and Long-Term Effects on Sons and Daughters

Assessment of the Familial Relationships of Young Adult Children of Separated Parents

“…In this sense several analyses of the variables that affect the relationship between the parental divorce and its negative effects have identified the quality of postdivorce familial relationships as the most significant predictor of children's psychological adjustment in the long term (Amato & Booth, 1991;Amato & Sobolewsky, 2001;Gasper, Stolberg, Macie, & Williams, 2008;Johnson & McNeil, 1998). Significant associations have also been observed between certain dysfunctional relational patterns that characterized the relationships of many of the children of separated parents-such as the interparental conflict (Amato & Booth, 1997;Cummings & Davies, 1994;Emery, 1999), triangulation (Afifi, 2003;Amato & Afifi, 2006;Buchanan, Maccoby, & Dornbusch, 1991, and parentification (Emery, 2008;Hetherington, 1999;Jacobvitz, Riggs, & Johnson, 1999;Minuchin, 1974;Wallerstein, 1985;Weiss, 1979)-and the children's development. Some of these relational patterns remain during young adulthood, such as the deterioration of the aforementioned parent-child relationship, triangulation (Afifi & Schrodt, 2003), and parentification (Emery, 2008;Jurkovic, Thirkield, & Morrell, 2001;Wallerstein, 1985), a fact that, as already pointed out by other authors (Amato & Sobolewsky, 2001), might represent a disadvantage both for the psychological adjustment of the young adult and for the assumption of the responsibilities typical of the transition to adulthood, such as economic independence or family formation (Scabini, Marta, & Lanz, 2006).…”

Observing Mother‐Child Relationships Across Generations: Boundary Patterns, Attachment, and the Transmission of Caregiving*

“…According to certain family systems theorists, the balance between intimacy and autonomy in family relationships is regulated, in part, by boundaries, the usually implicit emotional and psychological limits that help communicate to individuals how to function in relationships (Bowen, 1978; Jacobvitz, Riggs, & Johnson, 1999; S. Minuchin, 1974; Walsh, 1982; Wood & Talmon, 1983).…”

Representations of Parent–Child Alliances in Children's Family Drawings

“…PCA typically occur in the context of a distant or conflicted couple relationship (Jacobvitz, Riggs, & Johnson, 1999; Minuchin, 1974). The parent–child relationship becomes stronger than the couple relationship, which compromises the child's development and creates more problems in the couple relationship.…”