Parental Divorce, Marital Conflict and Children's behavior Problems: A Comparison of Adopted and Biological Children

Abstract

We used adopted and biological children from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study the links between parents' marital conflict, divorce and children's behavior problems. The standard family environment model assumes that marital conflict and divorce increase the risk of children's behavior problems. The passive genetic model assumes that parents' and children's behavior are linked because of genetic transmission from parents to children. The child effects model assumes that parents' marital distress is the result of (rather than the cause of) children's behavior. Our analysis shows that the associations between parents' divorce and marital conflict and children's behavior problems are comparable for biological and adopted children. Moreover, the primary direction of influence appears to run from parents to children. Taken together, these results provide support for the standard family environment model.A large number of studies conducted during the past three decades have shown that children with divorced parents have an elevated risk of a variety of problems, including conduct disorders, emotional disturbances, difficulties with social relationships and academic failure (Amato 2000). This topic has been of interest to social scientists from a variety of disciplines, including demography (

Parental separation and children’s education in a comparative perspective: Does the burden disappear when separation is more common?

“…Sociologists have been paying increasing attention to variations in the effects of family dissolution across subpopulations within countries since the 1990s (Amato 2000;Amato and Cheadle 2008;Bernardi and Radl 2014;Biblarz and Raftery 1993;Dronkers 1999;Kalmijn 2010;Kalmijn and Monden 2006;McLanahan and Sandefur 1994). Scholars, however, have focused much less on variations across societies.…”

Individuação e coping em adolescentes de famílias tradicionais e divorciadas

“…Assim, embora perante um contexto familiar problemático, o processo de divórcio possa ser benéfi co para os fi lhos, grande parte dos adolescentes percebe esta transição familiar como dolorosa (e.g. Amato, 2010;Amato & Cheadle, 2008;Hack & Ramires, 2010;Melo & Mota, 2014). Neste sentido, e partindo das difi culdades que pais e fi lhos atravessam no decurso das transições familiares, torna-se pertinente perceber o tipo de estratégias de coping que os adolescentes são capazes de desenvolver.…”

Challenging Temperament, Teacher–Child Relationships, and Behavior Problems in Urban Low-Income Children: A Longitudinal Examination

“…They then provided information on a range of child-level characteristics, including child age at study entry, race, and gender. Parent education, parental marital status, parent work status, and child gender were used as covariates given their evidenced link to both highly reactive temperament and behavior problems (Amato & Cheadle, 2008;Cote, Borge, Geoffroy, Rutter, & Tremblay, 2008;Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009;Green, Walker, Hoover-Dempsey, & Sandler, 2007;Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007).…”