E. Mavis Hetherington

The Adjustment of Children with Divorced Parents: A Risk and Resiliency Perspective

This review addresses major questions about divorce, around which much contemporary research is oriented. These involve questions of the consequences of divorce for the adjustment of children and the vulnerability and resiliency of children in coping with divorce, whether children are better off in a conflictual intact family situation or a divorced family, and how mothers, fathers, and clinical or educational interventions can moderate the effects of divorce. Although research in the past decade has yielded considerable information about these questions, issues that need further investigation are also presented.

Long-term effects of divorce and remarriage on the adjustment of children.

This paper presents the results of a 6-year follow-up of a longitudinal study of the effects of divorce on parents and children. It was found that, whereas divorce had more adverse effects for boys, remarriage was more disruptive for girls. The stability of the long-term adjustment of boys and girls differed, with externalizing being more stable in boys and internalizing more stable in girls. Children in divorced families encountered more negative life changes than children in nondivorced families, and these negative life changes were associated with behavior problems 6 years following divorce. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry , 24, 5:518–530, 1985.

Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage : a risk and resiliency perspective

Contents: Introduction and Overview. Part I: Why Marriages Succeed or Fail. S. Carrere, J.M. Gottman, Predicting the Future of Marriages. T.L. Orbuch, J. Veroff, A.G. Hunter, Black Couples, White Couples: The Early Years of Marriage. Part II: Child Adjustment in Different Family Forms. K. Deater-Deckard, J. Dunn, Multiple Risks and Adjustments in Young Children Growing Up in Different Family Settings: A British Community Study of Stepparent, Single Mother, and Nondivorced Families. S. Avenevoli, F.M. Sessa, L. Steinberg, Family Structure, Parenting Practices, and Adolescent Adjustment: An Ecological Examination. Part III: Family Functioning and Child Adjustment in Divorced and Single-Parent Families. E.M. Hetherington, Should We Stay Together for the Sake of the Children? S.S. McLanahan, Father Absence and the Welfare of Children. P.R. Amato, Children of Divorced Parents as Young Adults. P.L. Chase-Lansdale, R.A. Gordon, R.L. Coley, L.S. Wakschlag, J. Brooks-Gunn, Young African-American Multigenerational Families in Poverty: The Contexts, Exchanges, and Processes of Their Lives. M.J. Zaslow, M.R. Dion, D.R. Morrison, N. Weinfield, J. Ogawa, P. Tabors, Protective Factors in the Development of Preschool-Age Children of Young Mothers Receiving Welfare. Part IV: Family Functioning and Child Adjustment in Repartnered Relationships and in Stepfamilies. D.S. DeGarmo, M.S. Forgatch, Contexts as Predictors of Changing Maternal Parenting Practices in Diverse Family Structures: A Social Interactional Perspective of Risk and Resilience. J.H. Bray, From Marriage to Remarriage and Beyond: Findings From the Developmental Issues in StepFamilies Research Project. M.A. Fine, M. Coleman, L.H. Ganong, A Social Constructionist Multi-Method Approach to Understanding the Stepparent Role. E.R. Anderson, S.M. Greene, E.M. Hetherington, W.G. Clingempeel, The Dynamics of Parental Remarriage: Adolescent, Parent, and Sibling Influences. Part V: Intervention. R.E. Emery, K.M. Kitzmann, M. Waldron, Psychological Interventions for Separated and Divorced Families.

Nature and Nurture: Genetic Contributions to Measures of the Family Environment.

Research suggests that measures of the family environment show genetic effects when treated as phenotypes in behavioral genetic analyses. We explored this issue as part of the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development project using diverse questionnaire measures of parent-child and sibling interactions. The sample consisted of 707 pairs of siblings from 10 to 18 years of age in a novel design (identical and fraternal twins and full siblings in nondivorced families, and full, half, and unrelated siblings in stepfamilies). Model-fitting analyses yielded evidence for significant genetic effects for 15 of 18 composite measures. On average, more than a quarter of the variance of these environmental measures can be accounted for by genetic differences among children

Parental Religiosity, Parenting Style, and Adolescent Social Responsibility:

The hypotheses that parental religiosity would predict authoritative parenting and adolescent social responsibility were tested using data from fathers, mothers, and adolescents 10 through 18 years of age from 486 mostly Caucasian middle-class families participating in the Nonshared Environment (NSE) Study. Ratings of authoritative and authoritarian parenting were provided by trained observers using the Family Interaction Global Coding System. Survey instruments included measures of adolescent adjustment used previously by Hetherington and colleagues and a new index of religiosity that assesses the degree to which religious beliefs are manifested in parents’daily lives. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that religiosity was associated positively with authoritative parenting for both parents. Mothers’religiosity was associated negatively with authoritarian parenting; religiosity was unrelated to fathers’authoritarian parenting. Structural equation modeling indicated both direct effects and indirect effects (mediated by authoritative parenting) of mothers’and fathers’religiosity on adolescent social responsibility.

Genetic and environmental influences in adolescent peer socialization: evidence from two genetically sensitive designs

Harris argues that peer relationships are the chief determinants of personality development. Harriss thesis makes the behavioral genetic investigation of peer groups particularly timely. The present study examined genetic and environmental contribution to self-reported peer-group characteristics in two samples of adolescent siblings: 180 adoptive and nonadoptive sibling pairs from the Colorado Adoption Project, and 386 sibling pairs from the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development Study. Substantial genetic influence emerged for college orientation, with the remaining variance accounted for by nonshared environment. For delinquency, however, the majority of the variance was explained by nonshared environment. Although genetic influence was implicated for peer popularity in twin analyses, genetic factors were not important in explaining individual differences in nontwin siblings. These results suggest that although some dimensions of peers are somewhat mediated by genetic factors, nonshared environmental influence is substantial.

Social Support and the Adjustment of Children in Divorced and Remarried Families

This article draws together some of the key findings to emerge from research - in particular, from three longitudinal studies that the author was involved in - on childrens and adults adjustment to divorce, the risks children encounter after divorce, and the social factors that protect them or make them more vulnerable to adversity. Through collating this evidence, the article suggests that it is the diversity, not the inevitability of any one pattern of adjustment following divorce and remarriage that is striking. Although, on the average, children and adults in divorced and remarried families may confront more stresses and show more problems in family relations and personal adjustment than those in non-divorced families, the vast majority are resilient and able to cope with, or even benefit from, their new life situation.

Adolescent Perceptions as Mediators of Parenting: Genetic and Environmental Contributions.

Explaining how genetic factors contribute to associations between parenting and adolescent adjustment is an important next step in developmental research. This study examined the mediating effect of adolescent perceptions on these associations and the genetic and environmental influences underpinning the mediated relationship. Parent, adolescent, and observer ratings of parenting and adolescent adjustment were used in a genetically informative sample of 720 same-sex sibling pairs from 10 to 18 years old. Adolescent perceptions of parenting did significantly mediate a composite measure of parental conflict-negativity and adolescent antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms. The most substantial genetic contributions to the association between parenting and adolescent maladjustment were those mediated by adolescent perceptions. Once genetic and environmental contributions to adolescent perceptions of parenting were removed, shared environmental factors became more important for the remaining direct association.

The Development of Children in Mother-Headed Families

The incidence of children growing up in a mother-headed single-parent home in the United States is increasing. Over 10 million children currently are living in fatherless homes, largely because of the rapidly accelerating divorce rate, particularly in families that have young children. Fewer parents are “staying together for the sake of the children.” In 1975, there were more than 1 million divorces, and in each divorce an average of 1.22 children were involved. In contrast to the increasing divorce rate, the marriage rate has begun to drop. The ratio of divorces to marriages in the United States in 1975 was about 1:2, with 1,026,000 divorces and 2,126,000 marriages.

Genetic and environmental influences on teacher ratings of the Child Behavior Checklist

The knowledge we have of childhood and adolescent behaviour is, to some extent, a function of the unique perspective of the rater. Although many behavioural genetics studies have used parent and child self-reports in their assessments of child and adolescent adjustment, few have included teacher ratings of behaviour. It is possible that genetic and environmental contributions to teacher reports are different from those using parent and self-reports. The present study examined genetic and environmental influences on six subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form (CBC-TRF) using a normative sample of adolescents. The sample consisted of 373 same-sex twin and sibling pairs of varying degrees of genetic relatedness participating in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent project (NEAD). For all of the CBC subscales, except attention problems and social problems, nonshared environmental influence was the most important source of variance. Additive genetic factors were of moderate importance for externalising behaviours, whereas nonadditive genetic factors contributed to the anxious/depressed, attention problems, withdrawn, and social problems subscales. For none of the constructs was shared environment a significant influence. Three alternative models testing for contrast effects, differences in twin and nontwin siblings, and differences in nondivorced and stepfamilies were examined. In most cases, the best-fitting model was a model that did not include any of these effects, suggesting that these factors do not critically affect the basic model. However, some of the patterns of correlations and parameter estimates were unusual and may warrant future investigation.