ABSTRACT
The rise in divorced and single-parent families represents one of the most profound changes in the American family in the past four decades (Amato, 2005; Usdansky, 2009). As a result of this change, there has been an outpouring of interest from researchers over the potential “deterioration” of the American family and its effects on children. The impact of family structure on children has arguably been one of the most well researched areas in the social sciences, generating two thousand research articles on divorce between 2000 and 2009 alone (Amato, 2010). Despite the wealth of research on divorce and single parenthood, less is known about
how the American people feel about these changes to the traditional family form. To address this issue, Usdansky (2009) conducted a content analysis of attitudes toward divorce and single parenthood in popular magazines (N = 474) and scholarly research articles (N = 202) published between 1900 and 1998. She found that critical attitudes toward divorce in both the scholarly articles and popular press magazines plunged during this time, not due to an increase in favorable opinions about divorce, but as a result of a “virtual disappearance of normative debate” (Usdansky, 2009, p. 209). As Usdansky speculates, the absence of debate may reflect an ambivalent acceptance of divorce, perhaps as a result of weakening family values and norms in favor of individual choice and personal happiness or varied feelings about the benefits and consequences of divorce for children. These same opinions, however, were not shared with regard to nonmarital childbearing, which scholars and the lay public equally criticized throughout the century (Usdansky, 2009). One possible explanation for the more critical attitude toward single parenting is that while Americans are relatively ambivalent about divorce, they simultaneously place a high value on marriage, and single parenthood represents the antithesis of marriage (Cherlin, 2009). To better understand why these attitudes exist, we take a closer look at what
researchers have found regarding the impact of divorce and single parenthood on children using a risk and resiliency approach. In particular, we focus on communication patterns that promote risk and resilience in divorced and single-parent families. Communication
is the foundation of a family because it is the means through which family members construct and maintain their relationships with each other (Whitchurch & Dickson, 1999). As such, it is often the catalyst for positive and negative change in families. We conclude with a discussion of current trends and possible directions for future research.
Determining the precise impact of divorce on children is a difficult task because it depends upon a host of complex circumstances (see Amato, 2010). Most research suggests that divorce can have short-term and long-term effects on children. Some of the short-term effects of divorce on children include a decline in their standard of living, less quality and quantity of time spent with parents, internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, stress, depression, lower self-esteem), externalizing problems (e.g., aggression, delinquency, acting out in school), poorer academic achievement, changes in residences and schools, and greater fears of abandonment (e.g., Burt, Barnes, McGue, & Iacono, 2008; Strohschein, 2005; Sun & Li, 2002). Divorce can have long-term effects as well. Children whose parents divorce tend to have a greater fear of commitment in romantic relationships, are more likely to get divorced themselves, have greater psychological and economic difficulties, obtain less education, have insecure attachments, and experience more strained relationships with their parents (especially fathers) than those whose parents remain married (Amato, 1996; Amato & Sobolewski, 2001; Li & Wu, 2008; Sun & Li, 2010; Yu, Pettit, Lansford, Dodge, & Bates, 2010). Even though many of these effects may dissipate over time, there is evidence that for some individuals, the negative effects of divorce linger into adulthood (Amato, 2010). The scholarly debate that has continued for years concerns the exact size of these
effects and their long-term nature. Earlier studies by Wallerstein (e.g., Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1989; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980) suggested that most children suffered from long-term, debilitating effects of divorce. Other scholars like Popenoe (1993) have argued that divorce has strongly contributed to the demise of the American family. Most research, however, tends to take more of a “moderate” and multi-faceted approach. An important shift in thinking came with Hetherington (e.g., Hetherington, 1999, 2003) and Booth and Amato’s (e.g., 1994, 2001) research on divorce, which tends to assume a risk and resiliency approach. Hetherington’s research suggests that children vary considerably in their responses to divorce, with some fairing quite well and potentially benefiting from being removed from a tumultuous family environment and others suffering from long-term difficulties (Hetherington, 2003). Most of this variance is due to contextual factors, such as the age and gender of the child and parent, the number of stressors and transitions the child experiences, how long it has been since the divorce, whether remarriage is involved, and the communicative patterns that characterize the parents’ post-divorce relationship and the parent-child relationship. Amato and colleagues’ research (e.g., Amato & Afifi, 2006; Amato, Loomis, & Booth,
1995; Amato & Sobolewski, 2001; Booth & Amato, 1994, 2001) has been instrumental in demonstrating the impact of divorce on children (see Amato, 2010 for a more extensive review). With their longitudinal data set that spans generations, Amato and Booth have found that one of the most important predictors of how well children function after divorce is the degree of interparental conflict. In fact, research has found that even
though divorce still has a direct influence on children’s well-being (Riggio, 2004), interparental conflict is probably more important than divorce in predicting children’s psychological well-being and parent-child relationship quality (Amato & Afifi, 2006; Jekielek, 1998). As Amato and his colleagues (2001; Amato & Sobolewski, 2001; Booth & Amato, 2001) note, children whose parents have a conflicted marriage and who remain married may have poorer psychological well-being than children whose parents have a conflicted marriage and divorce. Amato et al. (1995) also found that children whose parents had a high conflict marriage and divorce were better off after the divorce. By contrast, children whose parents had little conflict in their marriage prior to the divorce were worse off if their parents divorced. Hetherington (1999, 2003), however, argues that much of the long-term effects of divorce dissipate if conflict between former spouses is kept at a minimum. Two meta-analyses conducted by Amato have been foundational for delineating the
impact of divorce on children. Amato and Keith (1991) first conducted a meta-analysis of 92 studies that compared children of divorce with children of first marriage families on measures of well-being. In general, they found that divorce is associated with lower well-being for children. As the authors also emphasize, however, the effect sizes were small (with the average effect size being .14 of a standard deviation) and were smallest with more recent and more methodologically and statistically sophisticated studies. Amato (2001) then updated the aforementioned meta-analysis with another analysis of 67 studies published in the 1990s, finding similar effects for children of divorce on academic achievement, psychological well-being, conduct, and social relationships. Interestingly, the gap for children of divorced and married parents across these variables was smallest during the 1980s and increased again during the 1990s (with an average effect size of-.29). In other words, children today might be more affected by their parents’ divorce than previous generations. Amato argues that there are two primary explanations for why this trend exists. First, couples are divorcing for different reasons. In the 1970s and 1980s, couples were likely to get divorced when it was a highly discordant relationship. In the 1990s and today, however, couples are more likely to get divorced in the quest for personal happiness, even if there is little or no conflict in the marriage, which may be more damaging to children because is disrupts their schemata for marriage and commitment. A second account for the rise in effect sizes during the 1990s could be that the gap in economic well-being became even wider between children of single parents and children of married parents, contributing to more significant effects of divorce on children in that era.
Although much of the research on single parenthood is subsumed under the research on divorce, scholars have also examined the impact of growing up with only one parent on children regardless of divorce. Most of this research shows that, on average, children who grow up in single-parent homes are disadvantaged on a variety of behavioral, psychological, and cognitive outcomes, as well as financial attainment compared to children who grow up in two-parent households (O’Connor, Dunn, Jenkins, Pickering, & Rasbash, 2001; Riala, Isohanni, Jokelainen, Jones, & Isohanni, 2003). Research has also found that children who are raised by single parents are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, including increased use of drugs and alcohol and earlier sexual activity, than children raised by two parents (Barrett & Turner, 2006; Griffin, Botvin, Scheier, Diaz, & Miller, 2000; Wagner et al., 2010).
