How Protective Buffering Harms Post-Divorce Adjustment in Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Abstract

After a divorce, parents and children try to minimize each other’s distress by hiding their feelings and pretending they are doing fine, a coping strategy called protective buffering (PB). Although there is substantial evidence that PB among romantic partners harms both partners’ well-being, the consequences of PB in parent-child relationships remain unclear. To examine PB among parents and children, we conducted a survey study among 100 dyads of Dutch divorced parents and their adolescent children. We examined actor and partner effects of PB on post-divorce adjustment. We additionally investigated whether decreases in authenticity and intimacy explained the association between PB and post-divorce adjustment. Data were analyzed by employing an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) and an APIM extended to Mediation. Results revealed that PB was negatively associated with parents’ life satisfaction, and to children’s life satisfaction and divorce-specific well-being. These negative actor effects were mediated by decreased authenticity for both parents and children. Consistent with research on PB in romantic relationships, PB not only impeded own post-divorce adjustment, but also the adjustment of the person participants tried to protect. Specifically, children’s PB was negatively associated with their parents’ divorce-specific well-being. Although further research is needed, the present study was the first to provide insights into the paradoxical effects of PB in parent-adolescent relationships.

Parent-Child Dyadic Coping and Quality of Life in Chronically Diseased Children

“…The dynamics of communicating stress and managing one's own stress are worth investigating. Also, as it was shown that protective buffering in parent-child dyads was associated with reduced authenticity, one possibility is that parents' and children's negative dyadic coping is associated with reduced feelings of authenticity, which in turn may hamper children's quality of life (van der Wal et al, 2021). Last, perceptions of the other person's dyadic coping may affect children's and parents' outcomes to a greater extent than one's own dyadic coping.…”