Tara McManus

Inappropriate Parental Divorce Disclosures, the Factors that Prompt them, and their Impact on Parents’ and Adolescents’ Well-Being

Recent research has shown that parents’ inappropriate disclosures about the divorce process can be stressful for adolescents. However, little is known about the conditions that prompt parents to disclose inappropriate information about the divorce to them. The current study examines factors (a lack of social support, a lack of control over divorce stressors, and the severity of the divorce stressors) that potentially influence parents to reveal inappropriate information about the divorce to their adolescents. It also explores the impact that these inappropriate disclosures have on parents’ and adolescents’ well-being. Surveys were gathered from 118 custodial parent–adolescent dyads. The results suggest that a lack of social support and the severity of the stressors did not influence parents’ inappropriate disclosures. Custodial parents’ lack of control over their divorce-related stressors was the only factor associated with their inappropriate disclosures. When a lack of control over divorced-related stressors was considered, parents with less stressful interparental conflict were likely to be distressed by their inappropriate disclosures, whereas parents who had a strained relationship with their former spouse were not. Adolescents’ perceptions of the inappropriate disclosures were also a stronger predictor of adolescents’ well-being than the parents’ perceptions of their own disclosures.

Communication Competence and Feeling Caught: Explaining Perceived Ambiguity in Divorce-Related Communication

Attribution Theorys contention that perceptions of another persons behaviors explain relational closeness and psychological well-being was tested. Specifically, young adult childrens perceptions of parents’ communication competence and the extent to which young adults felt caught between parents were tested as possible contextual moderators affecting the relationship between perceived parental ambiguity regarding divorce-related stressors and post-conversation relational quality and psychological well-being. Following a pre-conversation questionnaire, young adults and their parents discussed a divorce-related stressor, and then young adults reported their perceptions of parents’ ambiguity during the conversation, relational closeness, and psychological well-being. Perceptions of parents’ communication competence moderated the effects of perceived ambiguity on relational closeness. Feeling caught moderated the effects of perceived ambiguity on psychological well-being.

Received Support from Friends about Sex-Related Concerns: A Multiple Goals Perspective

Informed by research on friends’ sex-related talk, received support, and the multiple goals perspective, this study examined how college students’ interaction goals explained the support received from friends when talking about sex-related concerns. An online survey of 139 college students indicated instrumental, identity, and relational goals helped and hindered receiving nurturant, informational, and tangible support from friends, suggesting goals should not be studied in isolation. Results also evidenced the importance of having a combination of goal types to maximize received support from friends when talking about sex-related concerns.