| Dreman, Sally (2000) "The Influence of Divorce on
Children," Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 32 (3/4) Pp. 41-71. |
Review of
the Literature--With the year 2000, we can expect to see a number of publications
summarizing the research findings and/or overall research on several topics, including
divorce. One of the first is by Dreman (2000) who notes the short-term crisis of divorce,
6 months to a year after parental separation, typically results in younger children
blaming themselves for causing the divorce, heightened fear of parental abandonment and
harboring reconciliation fantasies. Younger children have few to no outside resources and
that is why the immediate family is so important in assisting them through this process.
Older children have extra-family support systems, such as schoolmates. Youth
organizations, friends outside the home. The review also notes that boys are more likely
to be influenced and imitate parental conflict than girls, that custodial mothers often
identify their sons with the ex-spouse and that this is a common cause of problematic
mother-son behavior. Dreman notes that about 50% of
divorces involve frequent and intense conflict in the two years preceding separation
Research findings also suggest that most parents are able
to succeed in separating parenting from marital issues. Her overview suggests the first
year after divorce is when children are most neglected by parents. (Interestingly, the
review also notes that fathers who actively seek custody report better parent-child
relationships.) School age children tend to adapt less well to custody of opposite sex
parent. This review of the literature reports divorced parents report greater family
support and less peer support than intact families. Indeed, 25% to 33% newly divorced
custodial parents stay with a relative, usually the parent's mother, and grandparents
provide greater social support than siblings (who likely are raising their own families).
The reviewer suggests that adult help is more helpful to children than children's peers.
School personnel commonly are a major support for divorcing children.
This literature view supports that emphasis, noting
children in divorced households do less homework and watch more television and are
involved in fewer parent-child activities than children in intact households--all counter
to authoritative parenting. |
| Brach, Elizabeth L., Kathleen A. Camara, and Robert F. Houser Jr. (2000)
"Patterns of Dinnertime Interaction in Divorced and Non-divorced Families," Journal
of Divorce & Remarriage (Vol. 32 (3/4) Pp. 125-139. |
Dinnertime
Interaction---Earlier research suggested that divorcing parents commonly are so
preoccupied with the divorce that they are less responsive as parents, Brach, Camara and
Houser (2000) looked at dinnertime interaction in two parent, mother custody and father
custody families with children age 7 to 9. Divorced parents had been separated or divorced
2 to 3 years. They found that the interactions (taking turns in talking) were about 40%
fewer in father custody families and 25% fewer in mother custody families than in
two-parent families. While the authors do not provide evidence that interaction affects
children's behavior, they suggest that vocabulary enhancement and learning through the
conversation of two adults at the dinner table may have significant consequences. They
also note that daughters spoke more than sons, that single parents made more efforts to
initiate conversations do, but still had less conversation. Father conversations were task
oriented while mothers talked about more varied topics. The authors suggest having
grandparents and other adults being part of dinnertime would more closely reflect intact
household conversation. |
| Madden-Derdich, Debra A. and Stacie A. Leonard (2000) "Parental
Role Identity and Fathers’ Involvement in Coparental Interaction After Divorce:
Fathers’ Perspectives," Family Relations, 49 (3), Pp. 311-318. |
Fathers'
Involvement---Most research on fathers' parental involvement following divorce has
been based upon the mothers' perceptions. In a study of 70 fathers divorced 10 months with
children under the age of 12, Madden-Derdich and Leonard (2000) found critical to fathers'
involvement with their children was how they perceived parental support from their former
spouse. Secondary was the fathers' own satisfaction with their parenting performance.
Where mothers had sole legal custody, fathers reported lower satisfaction in their own
parenting performance and coparenting. In other words, mothers serve as gatekeepers over
father interaction. The authors suggest joint legal custody provides fathers with greater
psychological satisfaction and a sense of control and influence that as a parent, not just
a financial supporter. |
| Nielsen, Linda (1999) "Demeaning, Demoralizing, and
Disenfranchising Divorced Dads: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Divorce
& Remarriage, 31 (3/4) pp. 139-177. |
Review of
Literature on Divorce and Fathers--Nielsen (1999), in her review of the
literature on divorced dads, notes that only half of divorced children have seen their
dads in the past year. She reports that of children under age 18, 50% live at home with
the biological father (presumably in either intact families or families in which the
father was granted custody), 15% with mother who never married, 15% with mother who has
not remarried, 18% mother and stepfather and 2% father and stepmother. She doggedly takes
issue with the popular "deadbeat dad" press, noting 75% of divorced dads meet
their financial obligations, than when mothers grant fathers some day in how child support
is sent the father often pays more than is required. Of the "deadbeat dads" she
says 1million are poorly educated, have low or no incomes, or were never married to the
mother of their children. (She further challenges convention by reporting that poor
mothers rarely are required to pay child support when children live with the fathers.)
Nielsen says some fathers (percentage not given) who refuse to pay child support have the
children less than 1/3 of the year while the ex-wife lives with the man with whom she
committed adultery while married. She challenges previous reports of men gaining income
after divorce, reporting mothers lose 20% to 25% of income from divorce, but fathers lose
10% to 20%. Nielsen suggests 80% of women, though remarrying later than men, regain a
higher standard of living with remarriage while men who remarry cannot provide as high a
standard of living as they had with former wife. She also notes the changing societal
mores and that women are as likely to commit adultery as men are and more likely to
divorce because they have "fallen in love" with someone else. Men also are more
likely to be depressed, commit suicide or develop stress-related illness after divorce. She suggests four reasons fathers are not more involved with their
children:
- Society's attitudes about fathering, i.e. the belief men are
instinctively inferior to women when raising children--the reverse of the belief of 200
yeas ago.
- Idealization of motherhood and mothers as virtuous,
unselfish and the love of a mother for a child as the most ideal love.
- Legal system treatment of fathers. 90% mothers full custody
and fathers two weekends a month.
- Mother's attitudes and behaviors. She suggests that father
discipline is interpreted as inflexible and demanding compared to mothers. She sites
earlier research suggesting that the parent feeling the most guilt about the divorce is
the one who does the worst job of setting limits and the parent most guilt ridden about
the divorce goes to the greatest length to deny the child has problems
She concludes that that memories of what happened in
childhood are largely shaped by what other people tell us, not by what we see or hear and
she suggests negative information about fathers helps create those memories. |
| Lin, I-Fen, "Perceived Fairness and Compliance With Child
Support Obligations, " (May 2000) Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62,
Pp. 388-398. |
Child Support--Lin
(2000) examined child support in 20 Midwestern counties. He interviewed 392 fathers who
did not have custody and used court records on child support compliance and
non-compliance. He found only 5% paid nothing, that 33% paid less than owed, 42% close to
what owed (95% to 105%) and 20% paid 105% or more of child support ordered. He found
greater compliance with those divorced two years and less. Over half considered the
support order unfair or somewhat unfair. In comparing those who saw support as unfair or
somewhat unfair with those who saw it as fair or somewhat fair, he found fairness
increased compliance, but that the use of income withholding (garnish?) also has a
positive effect. Lin said 70% comply when support is seen as unfair and there is no income
withholding; 88% comply when support is seen as unfair and there is income withholding,
and 92%comply when support is seen as fair and there is income withholding. His earlier
research found what fathers considered fair was about 40% of what mothers considered fair.
He suggests promoting the use of income withholding and improving perceptions of fairness. |
| Gager, Constance T., Teresa Cooney and Kathleen Call (1999) "The
Effects of Family Characteristics and Time Use on Teenagers' Household Labor," Journal
of Marriage and the Family, 61 (November 1999) Pp. 982-994. |
Chores--Recent
research by Gager, Cooney [an associate professor in the department of human
development/family studies at UMC] and Call (1999) examined family structures, gender and
chores. Boys average about 15 hours and girls 17 hours at ninth grade. By 12th grade boys
average 9 and girls 13 hours. They found a relationship between chores and involvement in
extracurricular activities, homework and volunteerism. Those most involved in those
activities devoted more hours to chores. Divorce results in parents promoting family work
(chores) by the children. Chores are greatest in single parent families and large
families. The authors also reported that 12th grade girls have more female type
housework in remarried families and ninth grade boys less household work (yard work, etc)
that may be due to friction with stepfather. |
| Oppawsky, Jolene, (2000) "Parental Bickering, Screaming, and
Fighting: Etiology of the Most Negative Effects of Divorce on Children from the View of
the Children," Journal of Divorce & Remarriage (32 (3/4) Pages 141-147. |
Parental
Bickering---. In her research on German children, Oppawsky (2000) found that nearly
all the children had been exposed to parental verbal arguments that increased crying and
sadness of the children. Children also expressed feelings of hate toward the parents
because of the fighting. One 18-year-old said, "I think less of my parents now."
And another child reported "…the school was a relief from family turmoil."
Children also expressed fear especially when one parent threatened the use of a
weapon or threatened suicide. The article concluded that children's reaction is governed
by the intensity of the strife. |
| Oygard, Lisbet, Frode Thuen and Per Solvang (2000) "An Evaluation
of Divorce Support Groups: A Qualitative Approach," Journal of Divorce &
Remarriage, 32 (3/4) Pp. 149-164. |
Support Groups--In
some counties, we may be looking a forming support groups in the next year or two. At this
time we do not have a support group question in our evaluations. We probably will be
adding such a question in 2001. Oygard, Fride and Solang (2000) examined divorce support
groups in Scandinavia that met seven times every other week for two hours. Their
qualitative analysis with 18 parents (11 females and seven males aged 30 to 54) suggests
support groups are valuable to participants for four reasons: 1--Meeting people with same thoughts and feelings---Support groups made it easier
to talk because other had experienced the same problems.
2--Increased insight of themselves--They reflected on
themselves after hearing about others and also received feedback.
3--Feeling accepted and supported--They said there was a
warmth in the groups that made them feel comfortable in discussing their divorce and how
they were handling it.
4--Expressing difficult feelings--Many said friends and
families didn't want to talk about their divorce and support groups helped them grow in
this process. |
| Molina, Olga (1999) "The Effect of Divorce on African
American Working Women." Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 32 (1/2) Pp.
1-15. Molina, Olga
(2000) "African American Women’s Unique Divorce Experiences," Journal
of Divorce & Remarriage, 32 (3/4) Pp. 93-99 |
African-American
Women and Divorce--Little research has been reported on the adaptation of
African-American women to divorce. African-Americans have a higher divorce rate than
Euro-Americans or Asian-Americans and are less likely to remarry. In her doctoral
dissertation, Molina (1999 and 2000) developed two research articles. She interviewed 30
African-American women who divorced in New York. New York has a Municipal Employees Legal
Services (MELS) plan providing legal assistance and also access to social workers. In the
first article she (Molina, 1999) reported 40% of divorces involved family violence, 33%
extramarital affairs, 17% alcohol or drug abuse and 10% financial difficulties. She found
most African-American women dated very little and mistrusted men. However, the socialized
more than before the divorce with other friends. Almost 60% reported financial problems.
They found counseling and a "belief I God" very helpful. Many had husbands who
did not work and with the divorce they reported being better able to care for their
children and 33% said it increased their ability to work. Almost half were returning to
some form of schooling. In the second article (Molina, 2000) on the divorce experience,
only half reported receiving child support, most lived alone, almost one-fourth said they
ex-husband faced racial discrimination, while only 10% of the women said they had faced
racial discrimination. They differed from Euro-American women in believing it would be
harder get a job if they lost their current job and felt that their was community pressure
to not get along with the ex-spouse and not to remarry. Unlike Euro-American women, none
had been housewives. |
| Jones, Tricia S., and Andrea Bodtker (1999) "Agreement,
Maintenance, Satisfaction and Relitigation in Mediated and Non-Mediated Custody Cases: A
research Note," Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 32 (1/2) pp. 17-30. |
Mediation---Previous
research has suggested high rates of agreement in divorce mediation and that mediated
agreements are likely to last. In this study, Jones and Bodtker (2000) examined mediation
in a county where a hearing officer decided which cases would go direct to mediation and
which direct to court. About 50% went to mediation. Data for this study are from 169
mediated and 61 non-mediated custody cases. They found that those using mediation were
more satisfied with the court experience, were more likely to think it was fair, their
concerns heard and respected, and that it benefited their parenting. They found no
differences in mediation outcomes between those with and without Protection From Abuse
orders. Mediation with parents who had children under age six or marriages less than six
years' duration were more likely to have multiple court actions. The researchers suggest
multiple court actions may be the result of more complex cases being sent to mediation. |
| Cookston, Jeffrey T. (1999) "Parental Supervision and Family
Structure: Effects on Adolescent Problem Behaviors," Journal of Divorce &
Remarriage 32 (1/2) Pp. 107-122. |
Parental
Supervision of Adolescents-- Cookston (1999) reports half of first marriages and
two-thirds of second marriages end in divorce. (This is higher for second marriages than I
have seen in previous studies). He suggests that parental monitoring declines as the child
goes through adolescence because of the cultural belief the adolescent is capable to
taking care of he or herself. Using the 1995 and 1996 National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health, he looked at monitoring of 684 youth ages 11 to 19 in 1995. Monitoring
was defined as: 1) being at home when the child leaves for school, being at home when the
child returns from school, and being at home when the adolescent goes to bed--admittedly
weak measures of monitoring. He then looked at adolescents' self-reports of alcohol use,
illicit drug behavior and delinquency. He found higher rates of problem behavior when
adolescents had low levels of supervision (parent not being at home) for all family
structures. Single fathers had the lowest supervision rates and the highest rates of
problem behavior in their children. Intact families provided highest supervision rates.
Interestingly, females from any family structure with low supervision rate were at highest
risk while males from any family structure with less than high supervision (even moderate)
were at highest risk. |
| Jeynes, William H. (1999) "The Role of Family residential
Mobility in Explaining the Lower Academic Achievement of High School Children from
Reconstituted Families," Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 32 (1/2) Pp.
123-143. |
Mobility and
Child Achievement--Relationships between frequency of moves and academic achievement
have long been a source of contention. Divorce and remarriage typically are associated
with moving. Indeed, we see high rages of mobility among those divorcing in this circuit.
Family studies' scholars initially took the position that remarriage benefited children,
but more recently have begun to move toward the position that children are worse off
because of research suggesting lower academic scores than with single parent, children
feeling the stepparent intrudes on the closeness the child feels for the biological
parent, reluctance in accepting the stepparent feelings the stepparent monopolizes
parent's time, the increased friction between biological parents when parent remarries,
the greater mobility of stepfamilies, rivalries with stepbrothers and stepsisters and the
greater marital instability of stepfamilies. (Jeynes, 1999) used data from the 1988, 1990
and 1992 National Education Longitudinal Study of those in eighth grade in 1988. He looked
at mobility and family structures in which the custodial parent was single for the four
years; custodial parent had been remarried the entire four years, custodial parent who
became single during the studied custodial parent who remarried during the study.
Children's self-reported grades, standardized test scores and whether held back in school
were the measures of academic achievement. He found that mobility by the reconstituted
family did not have much impact, but did have a slight impact. He suggests that friction
with former spouse may be a factor and suggests future research examine the reasons
reconstituted families move. |
| Taylor, Raymond J. (2000) "Attitudes of Professionals Toward
Parenting Programs After Divorce," Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 32
(1/2) Pp. 159-165. |
Attitudes by
Professionals Toward Divorce Education-- In Taylor (2000) 17 physicians, 21
clergy, 23 divorce attorneys, 33 teachers and 13 divorce mediators were asked what
elements should be in a divorce education program. Attorneys differed significantly from
other groups. The following are the elements most groups thought should be included:
court ordered, include the legal rights of parents, parenting skills, parenting
time schedule, calculation of child support, emotional impact of divorce, importance of
effective communication, divorce support groups and financial impact of divorce. The
author suggests that attorneys can play a valuable role in helping move clients toward
supportive services. He also noted that rarely do attorneys meet the divorcing clients'
children. |
| Suleman, Mona J, and Steven A. Meyers, (1999)
"Associations Between Custody Arrangements and Parent-Child Involvement Following
Divorce." Journal of Divorce & Remarriage 32 (1/2) pp. 31-46. |
Custody
Arrangement and Parent-Child Involvement--Data for this study came from the 1987-88
National Study of Families and Households. The researchers (Suleman and Meyer, 1999) found
no relationship between days mothers were awarded custody and child involvement for
fathers or mothers. They reported no differences in relationships between fathers and sons
and fathers and daughters. This also applied to mothers. This disagrees with earlier
research and the authors suggest that this may be due to changing social norms. The
researchers also found a decline in mother-child involvement with time since divorce. The
did not find this with fathers, which also differs from previous research. The small
number of fathers and no data on the current marital status of the parents are two
important factors that need to be addressed in future studies and raise questions about
the validity of the findings. |
