Effects of parental divorce and conflict on children

1. Effects of parental divorce and conflict on children Overview for today • How to write a peer review. • Effects of parental divorce and conflict on children • Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 110, 26. • Davies, P. T., & Woitach, M. J. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 269-274. • Roles of parents in adolescents and emerging adults • Smetana, J., et al. (2006). Disclosure and secrecy in adolescent-parent relationships. Child Development, 77, 201-217. • Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2000). Parental monitoring: A reinterpretation. Child development, 71, 1072-1085.

2. Peer Review Purpose: To help your classmate improve his/her paper. Three requirements: • Include introduction (1 paragraph), strengths of the paper (1 paragraph), and suggestions/weaknesses of the paper (2 to 3 paragraphs) • Introduction paragraph should include: • First introductory sentence that summarizes what the paper is about. • “This paper is about ….” • Summary of the key strengths of paper • Summary of the key weaknesses of paper • Your suggestions should be helpful and respectful. • Make sure that you provide reasons and suggestions for improvement • Each paragraph should include only one or related topic of evaluation.

3. Peer Review • Please bring TWO copies of your peer review next week. • Use APA format: • Double space with Times New Roman font, etc. • Don’t need a title page • Do need a header, page numbers, and Reference pages (if you cite). • 50 out of 300 points (17%) • 1.5 ~ 2 pages recommended.

4. Peer Review • Random Assignment:http://www.randomizer.org/form.htm

5. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. Three theoritical explanations: • Parental absence: A decrease in parental attention, help, and supervision. The lack of parental models. • H: Equivalent to the death of parent, fewer problems if parent remarries, and fewer problems if maintains closer relationships • Economic disadvantage: unable to afford private lessons, educations, nutritious food, etc. • H: No difference if income is controlled statistically, fewer problems if parent remarries, and fewer problems if fathers rather than mothers have custody. • Family conflict: a severe stressor for children and insecurity. • H: Harmonious single parent vs. high-conflict intact parents, fewer problems with longer time since divorce, fewer problems if postdivorce conflict is low.

6. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. According to the metanalysis "children of divorce experience a lower level of well being". This is quite logical finding, but wouldn´t they score even less if they remained in a family with both parents, who are constantly fighting? I think that it would be a meaningful comparison and possible defense of divorce.

7. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. Which of the three theoretical perspectives used to account for the effects of divorce on children is the most harming: parental loss, economic deprivation or family conflict?

8. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. • According to results of meta-analysis conducted by Amato and Keith (1991), there is a significant and negative relationship between parental divorce and outcomes like child’s well-being or academic achievement. However, size of effect of those relationships was predominantly small or trivial, especially in studies with more rigorous research designs. • Equally important, researchers themselves remind us possible methodological problems or flaws and implications of previous studies. For example, it seems that long-term consequences of parental divorce are more important than the short-term emotional and social problems. • Shouldn’t information mentioned above lead to change the way how researches think about topics like effect of parental divorce on children, namely from variable-oriented approach to case-oriented approach? Or is it sufficient enough to state that effect size is relatively low, which would in this case mean that although some individuals could be (heavily) influenced by parental divorce, consequences are not so severe in general?

9. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. “Stepparent can provide an alternative role model and source of support, children of divorce have fewer problems if the custodial parent remarries than if the custodial parent remains single.”At the end of the paper they conclude that it is only the case for boys. I would think that a stranger that comes in the family is always a problem because it is difficult to listen to “somebody” that isn’t accept as a family member.Why is it better only for boys to have a stepfather?

10. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. • Are there any data on how parental divorce can affect child well-being when there is more than 1 child who experience their parents divorce? And if so, does it affect more younger child or older, who sometimes can be an “airbag” or shield for his/her younger sibling when it comes to facing parents divorce?

11. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis.

12. Amato & Keith. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. I am wondering, if we can find some differences between children from married and later divorced parents and children from cohabited families (parent living together without “paper”) when they break-up also. Does divorce have a more powerful impact than “simple” break-up?

14. Davies & Woitach. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship.  • Exposure to interparental conflict should yield a higher incidence of the following responds: • fear, distress and vigilance, fight behaviors (e.g., mediating the conflict, siding with one parent, aggression), flight and camouflaging activities (e.g., avoidance, inhibiting overt emotions), social de-escalation strategies (e.g., comforting, pacifying parents)

15. Davies & Woitach. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship.  How old children are Davies and Woitach (2008) talking about in their emotional security theory? There would be probably very different reactions toparental conflict by a toddler and an adolescent... Does the theory count with this distinction? I think that it is more about younger children, so myquestion is how could older children react? Or young adults in the separation stage? And is it then still so closely tied with the attachment theory?

16. Davies & Woitach. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship.  Authors present the theory about reaction of children to interparental conflicts. They don´t mention any developmental stages and age of children. My question is, how does the system of security in interparentalrelationship develop during the childhood? I have an idea, that the attachment system develops first and in the first years of life is more important, and then child also starts to notice more his/her parents and develops some sense ofsecurity in the interparental relationship.

17. Davies & Woitach. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship.  I have read in Davies and Woitach (2008) that there are different protective strategies that can be used by children to preserve the sense of securityduring the interparental conflict (e.g. social de-escalation strategies, flight, aggression). Are they used equally by boys and girls or do they differ?For example boys using more aggressive behaviors and girls trying to pacify their parents.

18. Davies & Woitach. (2008). Children's emotional security in the interparental relationship.  For example, parent reports in daily home diaries revealed that a high percentage of children exhibited fear, flight, fight, and social de-escalationbehaviors in response to interparental conflict“ (Davies & Woitach, 2008).What does these children´s reactions to parental conflict influence? Is it maybe the children´s perception of the conflict, children´s age or form of the conflict?

19. Homework • Read two articles • Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. L. (1995). A developmental psychopathology perspective on child abuse and neglect. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 541-565. • Shipman, K. L., & Seman, J. (2001). Socialization of children’s emotion regulation in mother-child dyads: A developmental psychopathological perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 317-336. • Email me your thought question(s) by Tuesday midnight. • Bring two copies of your peer review.