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Cognition and adjustment among children of separated or divorced parents

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Abstract

The current study tested the hypothesis that coping with stress is associated with the individual's cognitive appraisals of the stressor and of their resources for coping with the stressor. Fifty-two children between 8.5 and 12 years of age who were experiencing the separation or divorce of their parents were given a measure of appraisals of divorce and a measure of appraisals of coping options. Their parents and teachers filled out behavior checklists, and teachers reported their classroom grades. For boys, appraisals of divorce situations were related to behavior in the home but not in the school. Boys' adaptive appraisals tended to be more strongly associated with behavior than were maladaptive appraisals. Their appraisals of coping options were related to personal adjustment in both the home and the school, but not to academic performance. For girls, only a few of the relationships between cognition and psychosocial adjustment were significant, possibly because of their restricted range of grades and scores on the behavior checklists. These findings provide partial support for the prediction that coping is related to appraisals of stressful events and of one's resources for coping with the events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, California, USA

    Susan E. Krantz, Jeffrey Clark, Jennifer P. Pruyn & Mary Usher

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  1. Susan E. Krantz
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  2. Jeffrey Clark
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  3. Jennifer P. Pruyn
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  4. Mary Usher
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Additional information

This study was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the senior author. We are indebted to Joy Bergman, Mary Anne Conway, Bette Kiernan, Bruce Linenberg, Tirtsah Michaelson, Aimee Morel-Seytoux, Isolina Ricci, Susan Strong, and Diana Wiley for their help in the data collection, and to Julie Lewis for her comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Krantz, S.E., Clark, J., Pruyn, J.P. et al. Cognition and adjustment among children of separated or divorced parents. Cogn Ther Res 9, 61–77 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01178751

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