Should you get a divorce?

Question 1

Overarching statement

Answer 1

Yes you should get a divorce because there has been little research to show that divorce directly has negative outcomes on children. There is some research to show that divorce impacts children, but this is to do with other circumstances such as family conflict and low income - divorce isn’t the issue

Question 2

Point 1

Answer 2

The effects of divorce are very small and they aren’t due to divorce directly

Question 3

Evidence to support point 1 - evidence 1

Answer 3

Amato and Keith 1991 - they carried out a meta-analysis which showed that there is lower academic adjustment, conduct problems, psychological adjustment, social adjustment, parent-child relationships, but effect size is only .14 - very small. More methodological sophistication = smaller effects
It is actually parental absence, economic disadvantage, family conflict - divorce is just a factor

Study good because it was based on 81,000 people in 37 studies so has high validity
Replicated by Amato in 2001 - high reliability

Question 4

Evidence to support point 1 - evidence 2

Answer 4

Demo and Acock 1988
Found that children emotional adjustment, gender role orientation and anti-social behaviour are affected by family structure - but these finding needs to be taken into consideration because other variables which haven’t been controlled, such as family conflict, could be causing the disadvantages

Question 5

Evidence to support point 1 - evidence 3

Answer 5

Clarke-Stewart et al 2000 - found that children’s psychological development was not affected by parental separation, it was related to mothers’ income, education, ethnicity, child-rearing beliefs, depressive symptoms and behaviour. When family variables were controlled for, the effects of divorce were reduced - even smaller effect was shown than in Amato and Keiths study

Longitudinal study - followed for long period
Repeats Amato and Keiths study - adding to its reliability

Question 6

Point 2

Answer 6

It is remaining in a high conflict family which is the issue - I would advise you to get divorced instead of arguing all of the time

Question 7

Evidence to support point 2 - evidence 1

Answer 7

Jekielek, 1998
Children remaining in high conflict environments exhibit lower levels of well-being than children who have experienced high levels of parental conflict but whose then divorce – shows that marital disruption, following high conflict, may improve the emotional well-being of children

Longitudinal study of 1640, children aged between 6-14, shows impact over long time

Question 8

Evidence to support point 2 - evidence 2

Answer 8

Mechanic and Hansell, 1989
Adolescents living in intact families with high conflict had poorer well-being than those living in families of divorce with low conflict

Longitudinal - used adolescence which is good because older age range than Jekielek
Shows pattern is seen in both age ranges

Question 9

Point 3

Answer 9

The impact of divorce is due to having a low income - so if you ensure you are still getting a good income, then divorce won’t have adverse effects

Question 10

Evidence to support point 3 - evidence 1

Answer 10

Kraft and Luecken, 2009
Participants from divorced families had significantly lower cortisol across the experimental period than those from intact families – however, family income mediated the relationship between divorce and cortisol. This suggests that it is not divorce which is creating the problem

Objective measure of negative outcomes

Question 11

Evidence to support point 3 - evidence 2

Answer 11

Weaver and Schofield 2015
Children from divorced families had more behavioural problems compared with intact families – however this was moderated by income. If they had high income before divorce, they had less problems. As well as this, after the divorce, if their household income was lower, they would have more behavioural problems

Looked at both externalising and internalising problems
Children aged 5-15 - big age range
Used both teacher and mother reports

Question 12

Conclusion

Answer 12

All of the research shows that the most important thing for children isn’t family structure or marital status, it is to do with family processes. Therefore, I would advise you to divorce your wife because this won’t have a negative impact on the children, as long as there is no family conflict and the family still has a high household income