Chapter 10 Divorce A Risk and Resilience Perspective Estimates Prevalence of Divorce among the racial ethnic groups o Large proportions of families have experienced divorce African Americans having higher divorce rates but are less likely to marry European Americans marry at a much higher than African Americans In the 1990 about 47 of African American marriages resulted in separation within 10 15 years vs European Americans 28 Divorce rates for Latinos are lower than for both African European Americans Family systems theory views the family as a system of interconnected individuals with changes in one or more members or relationships having reverberating effects throughout the entire family o Families as a system influence their environment and in turn are influenced by the circumstances and contexts around them o With divorce this theory states that the family needs to be viewed in its entirety because it may be misleading to focus on only a particular individuals or dyads within the family Risk and resiliency perspective is used to delineate more precisely how divorce affect family members and the family system helps achieve the purpose of the perspective o Risk factors increase the likelihood of negative outcomes o Resilience refers to the processes by which an individual over comes difficult circumstances bounces back from adversity and become stronger in the face of crisis o A risk resilience approach places the research focus on understanding variations in responses to the challenges posed by divorce and life in a single parent context The historical context of divorce in the U S o The divorce rates increased from the mid 19th century thru the 1970s o The rates stabilized at a high level in the early 1980s and declined since then This drop was due to individuals with college degrees o Rates rose drastically after World War 2 because The aberration of the concept of the Nuclear Family Less power and more burden for women due to expectations and inequities in power and divisions of labor households in the 1940 s and 1950 s Economic factors also contribute to rising divorce rates Factors that predict cause divorce Demographic risk factors include o Being African American o Living in the western and southern part of the U S and in urban areas o Cohabitating before marriage Having a baby before marriage o Being young at time of marriage Less educated o Remarried Having divorced parents o Non religious Individual Difference variables divorce risk is positively reated to neuroticism tendency to experience negative emotions psychopathology thinking of divorces and high levels of self monitoring the ability motivation to control ones presentation of others Relationship difference variables divorce risk is related to dissatisfaction with marriage lower levels of commitment to the relationship martial aggression and more negative than positive in martial interactions Relationship to the aftermath of divorce and the effect on children o They experience long term post divorce adjustment problems and moderate short term effects for both adults and children o Emery concluded that 1 Divorce stressful for children 2 Divorce leads to higher levels of adjustment and mental health problems among children 3 Most children are resilient and adjust well to divorce over time 4 Children whose parents divorce report considerable pain unhappy memories and continued distress 5 Post divorce family interaction patterns greatly influence adjustment following divorce o Varying conclusions of the consequence of divorce They have tended to focus there efforts on 1 or 2 of these areas of inquiry at a time to the exclusion of others There is considerable variability in the nature of adjustment to divorce individuals differ on how they respond to divorce to measure and in their perceptions of adjustments Many of the effects are modest effect sizes in divorce studies are often small so they are difficult to measure consistently o Women are more likely to be disadvantage then men o Men enjoy a better financial situation post divorce o Mothers to devote more time money to care for child than fathers o Women less likely to work if they have younger children o Many mothers receive irregular incomplete child support payments o Sexism and gender discrimination in the wage workplace contributes Economic consequences to women post divorce economic decline Psychological adjustment o Important predictor post divorce psychological adjustment was pre divorce adjustment better coping and emotional function prior to divorce were associated with more effective coping and less anger after divorce o Both men and women cope better when involved with a new partner psychologically and emotionally also serves as a protective factor o Women are more affected by the residual hostility from the past marriage and problematic relations between partners and children in their new marriage o Women are more deeply committed to marriage and parenthood Children s adjustment o Most children experience adjustment difficulties for 1 to 2 years during the period leading up to and immediately following parental separation and divorce o Adjustment is moderately lower than children who have intact first marriage family o Protective factors include economic resources positive relationships with parents low levels of family conflict and high levels of pre divorce adjustment o Frequency of contact with nonresidential parent has little effect on child well being o Economic hardship is associated with lowered parental well being less effect and less supportive parenting inconsistent and hard discipline and distressed and impaired socio emotional functioning in children Multiple transitions and children parent adjustment o The frequency of mothers partnership transitions was associated with increasing children s aggressive and anxious depressive behavior at age 3 o A single partnership change was associated with only modest detrimental additive effects resulting in large effects for children who experienced multiple transitions o The frequency of transitions is related to higher levels of depression for women o Effects on adults are smaller vs effects on children adults may have more sophisticated and effective coping skills or may be more accustomed to divorce stressors with each subsequent divorce Interventions o Parenting education of divorcing parents Available in all but 4 states Mostly court mandated Offered in schools universities and community