This study sought to explore the long-term effects of and relationships between parental divorce, interparental conflict, and parent-child relationships on interpersonal and generalized trust, empathy, dependency, and depressive affect among late adolescents.
Method
Self-administered questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 288 college students (including 60 children of divorce). Participants were asked to rate current and past levels of interparental conflict, the current affective quality of their parent-child relationships, and present adjustment.
Results
Path analyses revealed that the effects of interparental conflict on psychological well-being were mediated by parent-child relationships. For women, however, parental divorce also was found to affect adjustment indirectly (via disrupted father-daughter relationships), although no such path emerged for men.
Conclusions
The findings are part of a growing literature documenting the role of parent-child relationships in mediating the effects of marital disruption. In addition to efforts to resolve marital conflict, clinicians may want to focus on enhancing mother-child, father-child relationships as a way to modify the damaging effects of conflictual marital relations on children and adolescents. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 1993, 32, 5:1019–1027.
Key Words
interparental conflict
parental divorce
late adolescence
Cited by (0)
The authors thank Emory L. Cowenfor his input and support during all phases of this study and helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. The authors also gratefully acknowledge James P. Connell for theoretical and technical contributions. Special thanks are extended to the Gordon S. Black Corporation for computer support.
