The effects of family composition, family health, parenting behavior and environmental stress on children's divorce adjustment

Abstract

The traditional family composition model of children '

Assessing Parenting After Divorce

“…), there is a decreased likelihood of all behavior problems (except hyperactivity). These results are consistent with other research indicating that warmth, monitoring, and communication are essential to the healthy development of all children and can help to buffer them from the negative ramifications of stressful events, such as divorce (Ellwood & Stolberg, 1993;Dishion et al, 1991;Frick et al, 1992;Katz & Gottman, 1997;Linker, Stolberg, & Green, 1999;Shelton et al, 1996).…”

“…Moderators of the impact of divorce on children include age and gender of the child, quality of social support networks available to the family, changes in standard of living, parental adjustment to the divorce, relationship with the non-custodial parent, parenting styles, and extent of inter-parent conflict (Amato, 1993;Emery, 1982;Hetherington et al, 1982;Hetherington et al, 1989;Simons et al, 1999;Shaw, 1991). Healthy adjustment for children of divorce has been associated with effective and cooperative co-parenting and minimal inter-parent conflict (Amato, 1993;Ellwood & Stolberg, 1993;Lengua, Wolchick, & Braver, 1995). The quality of the post-divorce parenting relationship and the parenting skills of each parent have been identified as the most significant 90 JOURNAL OF DIVORCE & REMARRIAGE contributors to child adjustment and are among the factors that clinicians can reasonably hope to impact.…”

“…Inter-parent conflict, the relationship between the child and each parent, and the parenting skills of both parents are consistently shown to be among the most important factors in predicting outcomes for children of divorce (Amato & Keith, 1991;Camara & Resnick, 1988;Ellwood & Stolberg, 1993;Lengua et al, 1995;Stolberg & Bush, 1985;Stolberg et al, 1987). Thus, specific parenting and co-parenting behaviors, including inter-parent conflict, triangulation, inter-parent respect/cooperation, inter-parent communication, parental discipline, parental monitoring, parental warmth, and parent-child communication, are measured in the CBQ.…”

“…Conflict also interferes with parenting by consuming the available attention of the parents. Children, particularly the younger ones, are likely to internalize the conflict and place blame on themselves because they are commonly the subject of the parents' fighting (Ellwood & Stolberg, 1993).…”

The Development of the Co-Parenting Behaviors Questionnaire

“…Of this population, 250,000 children will experience serious adjustment problems attributable to this family event (Ellwood & Stolberg, 1993). The significance of the problem to mental health delivery systems is dramatized by the fact that almost half of all children seeking public and private psychological counseling are from families of divorce.…”