Sex differences in children’s response to parental divorce: 1. Research methodology and postdivorce family forms.

Abstract

Eicerpted .from t i paper t.oninti.ssioned b! the Committee on Child Development Research and Puhlic Po1it.i. crnd supported by Contrcicr N o . ASU000001-05 benreen the National lnstitute of Child Hecilth cind Hunitin Dewlopmenr trnd the Ncitit~nal Academ! of Science., . D 1988 American Orthopsychiatric Association, Inc. 355 * The terminology used in previous reviews, and indeed in the present review, implies a specific causational model: the event of divorce causes more negative reactions in boys than in girls. What the data actually assess is the psychological status of children subsequent to divorce. Recent evidence suggests that group differences, and the pattern of sex differences, anredare the family disruption (Block, Block & Gjerde, 1986). Thus it is unclear to what extent differences in children following divorce reflect predivorce family stress, the actual separation, postdivorce disequilibrium, or even long-standing differences in child behavior that may have contributed to family stress and parental separation. The use of terminology like "boys' vs girls' response to divorce" in the present review is for ease of reading and must be understood as an oversimplification of more complex and little understood processes associated with child outcomes.* In Zill (1978) an analysis is reported for a single variable in which both child sex and family status are considered, and family status is defined specifically in terms of divorce.

The psychological adjustment of children from separated families: The role of selected social support variables

“…This is at odds with most current research results where boys (mainly those who are in the custody of their unremarried mothers) show more adjustment problems than girls (Demo & Acock, 1988;Hetherington, 1989a;Zaslow, 1988). We hypothesized that these unexpected results could be due to the effect of merging the Externalization and Internalization scores in our overall dependent measure.…”

“…In addition, as divorce seems to have a differential impact on boys and girls (for a critical review, see Zaslow, 1988), it could be that social support functions differently and has a distinctive impact on girls (Belle, 1987;Bryant, 1984;Feiring & Lewis, 1987). This sex differential effect should certainly be taken into consideration in any attempt to establish a predictive model of adaptation among children of divorce.…”

Infant visual habituation and parental psychological distress

“…Yet, differences in the manner in which mothers interact with male and female infants do not appear to affect the development of perceptual learning in infancy, as gender differences are rarely observed (Bornstein & Lamb, 1992). However, it is also well documented that parental stress, either resulting from psychological disorders (Murray & Cooper, 1997), pregnancy and childbirth (Zelkowitz & Milet, 1996), divorce (Wallerstein, 1999;Zaslow, 1988), or work (Zelkowitz & Milet, 1997) place the parent -infant relationship at risk, as these mothers display less than optimal behaviors during interactions (Field, 1998;Murray & Cooper, 1997). Thus, it is possible that the elevations in psychological distress we observed in our parents resulted in further desynchronization of parent -infant interactions, thereby hindering the development of perceptual learning in their infants.…”

“…Thus, girls with more advanced physical and linguistic development are seen as being cognitively more advanced. Also, it is widely believed that boys are more vulnerable to problems in development when raised in environments that are subject to high levels of stress (Zaslow, 1988). Thus, boys faced with a mother exhibiting psychopathological symptoms may be at greater risk for delays in cognitive functioning than are girls.…”

Adaptation des adolescents au décès ou au divorce des parents

“…À la lecture de ces études, on est frappé par les points suivants : plusieurs d'entre elles s'appuient sur des échantillons cliniques, c'est-à-dire sur le groupe bien particulier des familles qui ont demandé de l'aide lors de l'événement du divorce ou du décès de l'un des parents. Dans ce cas les conclusions sont biaisées car ces familles ne constituent pas un échan-tillon représentatif de toute la population concernée par le divorce ; de plus dans le cas des vingt-sept études identifiées comme sérieuses par Zaslow (1988) dix-huit d'entre elles ont un échantillon inférieur à 250 enfants et/ou adolescents, ce qui limite l'analyse à des mesures statistiques simples et empêche l'utilisation d'analyses multivariées plus raffinées. Enfin les études sont limitées soit au divorce, soit au décès d'un parent, ce qui prévient toute comparaison entre ces deux groupes de «familles brisées».…”