Article Review of 'A Quantitative Examination of Conflict within Co-Parental Relationships Post-Divorce'

The key research question in this study is what are the long term effects of parental divorce on a child’s relationship between their parents and their siblings? They took into consideration variables such as age of divorce, gender, and living arrangements so they can see what influence they may have on the present study results and compare it with previous studies. They gave 3 different surveys to 102 students with married parents and 107 students with divorced parents to be able to observe the differences in relationships between the two types of families. Some of the key findings of this study are that females actually have better adult relationships with their siblings and that divorce caused the children to have better relationships with their mother, and worse relationships with their father. They noted that the age when their parents got divorced was not a variable that affected whether or not they had a good relationship with their siblings. For the relationship between their mothers, it was better unless there was a variable of pre-divorce or post-divorce conflict between them. For their fathers, it showed that daughters had worse relationships with their fathers compared to sons. Living arrangements showed effects for both of the parents depending on which parent they lived with. When it comes to remarriage, it had a positive affect on mother-child relationship when the father got remarried and no affect when the mother was remarried.

Children who were not living with both their biological parents when they were born, whose father had passed away, parents stopped living together before they left home for other reasons other than divorce, all were excluded from the data. Children who lived with their father after divorce were also excluded in the main analyses. Lastly the divorces that occurred in the past 0-9 years were taken out because he was interested in the long-term effects.

At the end of the study, the children were divided into two groups; those whose parents had divorced and those whose parents had stayed together. As expected, the children whose parents had divorced showed more behavior problems and scored lower on reading and mathematics tests than did the children whose parents were still married. But when the researcher looked back at records from the beginning of the study, they found that the children whose parents would later divorce already showed more problems. This suggests that conflict between parents and the process of divorce affects children before parents actually split up. Psychologists Judith Wallerstein and Joan Kelly conducted an in-depth study of 131 children from 60 families in which the parents had recently divorced(J. B. Kelly and Wallerstein, 1976;J. S. Wallerstein and Kelly, 1976).

The research found that the was a correlation of co-parenting and race/ethnic interactions as associated with the child-parent association was found. Research findings validate the well-accepted data on the importance of supportive co-parenting during infancy and the many benefits including father engagement and mother-child attachment. The findings did differ from previous research in finding, lower levels of father engagement in minority families. Attachment in minority parent-child relationships was also lower than those of white families. Regardless, the positive link between supportive co-parenting and father engagement crossed racial/ethnic lines. Researchers theorize

“Fatherless” children are more likely to be truant and have trouble academically; seventy-one percent of high school dropouts have absent fathers. Also, teenagers without fathers are more involved in criminal activities, as eighty-five percent of youth in prison do not have an acting father or father figure (Kruk). The presence of both parents lessens the likelihood of the formation of mental illnesses; a closer relationship with the mother and the father in an adolescent’s life is related to a decreased risk for anxiety disorders and depression (Asselmann et al., Kruk). Research from psychologist Malin Bergström agrees that joint or shared custody has greater positive effects on children and their well being than single-parent custody. Furthermore, the Stanford Project, a study of adolescent adjustment after divorce, concluded that teenagers in joint or shared custody arrangements adapted smoothly to their circumstances in comparison to their single-parent counterparts (Government of Canada). In agreement, sociologist Sofie Vanassche said “parental absence after divorce may lead to loss of security in parental relationships and to maladjustment in later life.” Sharing custody not only promotes healthy children, but it can also benefit the parents and their

It examined the ways in which cohesion may impact children’s adjustment to parental divorce, and its effect on their future romantic relationships. This research ultimately dispels the myth that all divorces cause the generational transmission effect. The generational transmission effect is concluded to universally exist, but there are definitely many other factors that come into play when it comes to divorce. It was concluded that just because a couple divorces, it does not mean their children are certain to get a divorce, but they do face a higher chance. The idea that divorce is passed from generation to generation, ultimately depends on levels of conflict and cohesion. All five articles I had chosen concern the children of divorced parents and their future romantic relationships. They are all fairly recent sociological articles, with studies done by sociologists. Some studies from the articles I have chosen argue that divorce makes a strong impact on children’s future relationships, whereas others say there is little to no impact. Through my studying and research I have come to find that in each article there is one common factor in their findings: the outcome of the children’s relationship depended on how the divorce went, as well as how the children were able to cope with the divorce. Levels of conflict and cohesion were predominant

America is the sixth highest country when it comes to divorce, with a statistic of 3.4 divorces in 100 people. These statistics vary on the age and culture of the couple, however, children are a common casualty in these unfortunate circumstances. The emotional influence on children both pre- and post-divorce is difficult to measure due to many variables that need to be considered. The child’s relation with the parents before and after marriage, the age, and location are some examples. Although these articles display data that are used in answering the question, there is some room for a negation on the subject matter. Keeping these in mind, the drawn conclusion of this topic is that the children are usually emotionally affected by divorce, and are burdened with a difficult upbringing due to lifestyle changes that are forced on them after the separation. Every case of separation is different but further research is required by taking in each different variable.

Yongmin, S. (2008). Children 's well-being during parents ' marital disruption process: A pooled time-series analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(2), 472-488. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/

The easy going life each individual lives today gives them no tolerance to face their problems. Married couples have many arguments regarding finance, time management, etc. and when one cannot cope with all the problems they decide to divorce. According to the researcher Maggie Gallagher, “Eighty percent of U.S. divorces are unilateral, rather than truly mutual decisions,” (Medved A.9). Couples with children often lack to think about the psychological effect it will have on their children due to their divorce. The effect of divorce on children

The absence of a paternal figure will be a recurring theme throughout this review, with divorce a situation that commonly takes place is the decrease in the involvement of the parent that did not receive custody of the children, the mother almost always receives full custody of the children. This can result in the decreased presence of the father over a period of time, sometimes resulting in the presence becoming extinct all together. The importance of paternal involvement can be argued to be equally important to both genders, however based on the upcoming research, the presence of the father is critical to the development of healthy interaction females from divorced families have with the males in which they try and establish relationships

Divorce is one of the many problems facing the family unit today. People have different views on the effect of divorce on children but not a few analysts opine that when a couple opt for divorce, the resultant effects on them and their children are most

Children, and their love toward their parent “are an important resource for divorced parents but at the same time, they may necessitate continued contact with their ex-spouse, which may lead to the children being thought of a symbol of disappointment from the marriage” (Cohen, Dottan, pg 82). “Amato and Booth (1996) found that if there were problems in the parent-child relationship before divorce, it predicted parent’s low affection for their children after divorce during the “stormy period” or the

In today’s society, it is very common for a married couple to divorce. Usually, the divorce involves children. A home that has experienced divorce is not only broken on the outside, but also the inside. A child of divorced parents can be emotionally, relationally, mentally and physically changed by this altering event. Some kids are resilient and can deal with the divorce in a reasonable and healthy way but others do not deal with it as well. However, sometimes it’s not the divorce that causes the problems, it’s the conflict and family disharmony that occurs because of the split. “The divorce of parents is a major stressful life event for children and adolescents, often having negative effects on health and well- being” (as cited in Hansell, 1989, p. 105). A vast majority of children experience their parents go through a divorce and are left with only their mother or father. “About 25% of children in the US live with only one parent; the fallout from contentious divorces often leaves them susceptible to any number of damaging scenarios” (Bernet, 2015, p. 1). Although there is some people who would argue, it is the general consensus that the divorce rates in the United States is around 50 percent leaving so many children to deal with this altering event (Portnoy, 2008, p. 126).

Finally the father's satisfaction is another effect of nonresident parents. In some families it's usual to see the mother interfering with the father's visitation, like not letting the father see the child or not respecting the hours of visitation or just obstructing the process. But this behavior is frequently denied by the mother. The father's satisfaction can be affected by the remarriage of the mother which makes it difficult for the father

Society is always rushing, hurrying, and trying to beat the clock. Deadlines and overtime seem to be a topic in everyday conversation. How is it possible that so much can be accomplished in just a short amount of time? What seems to be lacking? What is cut out of people’s everyday life? Frank Furedi in his book “Culture of Fear,” discusses many issues that are facing our society today. One of the issues he has written about is interpersonal relationships, at one point in the book Furedi writes “...people pollute-not just the environment but each other”(38). When one takes a more thoughtful approach to life, one may find there are many examples to the idea of strained relationships