Test 3 lecture Flashcards
prevalence of children who will experience parental divorce
38% of white, 75% black, before age 16
effects of divorce on children’s psychosocial adjustment; how strong is the effect?
negative effects are weak
small change in GPA
effects may not be due to divorce. but factors related to divorce
effects buffered by other good relationships
the effects of divorce on children over time (from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s)
smaller effect in 70s-80s than 50s-60s
the parental absence perspective
reduced resources by 50%, “father figure”, parenting is hard, the more the better, suffer without
the economic disadvantage perspective
takes a lot of money to raise child (doctors, food, clothes), divorce-half of money goes away theoretically, moms generally get custody get paid less than dad often, often deal with poverty, standard of living goes down due to lack of income, child support doesn’t always happen
the family conflict perspective
most common, children have more trouble because of family conflict the precedes divorce, hurts kids, strong support for this perspective, two parents together fighting more harmful to child than living with one parent
does divorce have any effect on children when they become adults? if so, how strong of an effect?
yes, lower well being as adult
weak effect-perseveres to adulthood
-lower psychological adjustment, conduct problems, marital happiness.
-45% of children of divorced parents have better well being than children of intact marriage, and vice versa
issues in relations with divorced parents (e.g., less affection, parentificaiton, etc.)
- less affection
- parentification: usually emotional support or instrumental, most common in daughters to mom
- parent-child conflict: increase in stress, economic problems, notable most in mother-son relationships
the intergenerational transmission of divorce
- increase risk of divorce for children with divorced parents-largest effect
- 10% divorce over 2 years for those with no parental history of divorce
- 15% one of spouses exposed to divorce
- 30% if both.
- parental divorce increases odds of own divorce
modeling theories of intergenerational transmission (ineffective marital communication skills, attitude of non-commitment to marriage, lower relationship efficacy)
- ineffective marital communication skills: engaged couples: if womans parents were divorced, led to more communication problems. Parental conflict is the culprit. Wives whose parents divorced enact more physical aggression. Husbands more anger and contempt
- attitude of non-commitment to marriage: children learn that marriage is not permanent. Attitude of divorce as a viable option for resolving marital problems. People whose parents are divorced hold weak/less positive attitudes towards marriage and more accepting attitudes toward divorce. However, family of origin conflict, not divorce causes these attitudes
- lower relationship efficacy: parental divorce associated with high parental conflict. Parental conflict led to lower relational efficacy. Lower relationship efficacy leads to more conflict. Offspring conflict leads to poor romantic relationship quality.
how common are remarriages?
half of marriages are remarriages
75% of divorced will remarry
how quickly do divorced people get remarried?
Median time is 3 years
divorce rate of 2nd marriages
higher divorce rate
half
explanations for the higher divorce rate of second marriages (e.g., divorce prone personality, etc.)
- divorce prone personality
- training school hypothesis: dysfunctional form of communication learned in 1st marriage, trained for bad habits
- willingness to leave marriage hyp: see divorce as an option/outcome
- dysfunctional beliefs hyp.: once individuals have gone through stuff in previous marriages, think you know everything, learned everything, think it’ll be perfect, until reality settles in
- remarriage market hypothesis: “all the good ones are taken”
how are power and decision making affected by remarriage?
more equitable: personal experience in prior marriage and living single causes women to seek more power, women bring greater resources, previously married think differently about marital roles, women who are reluctant to marry gain power, men concede more during conflicts
different types of post-divorce relationships (e.g., dissolving duos, etc.)
- dissolving duos: don’t talk to each other, no contact
- perfect pals: mutual respect, good friends, good comm., maintain family relationships (least likely to remarry)
- cooperative colleagues: surface focused, task oriented, business partners, compromise for children, “what time are you going to pick up the kids?”
- angry associates: resentment, parallel parenting styles/resources, not correlating
- fiery foes: no acceptance of others right, attempt to separate children from spouse, children into pawns
how common are step family living arrangements?
- 25% of cohabiting couples involve child from a previous relationship
- in 2009, 16% of all children in the US lived with stepparent, stepsibling, or half
- 1/3 of all children will live with a stepparent before age of 18
two key phases in the development of stepfamily relationships
- fantasy stage: hope, excited, high expectations, great relationship, positive
- immersion stage: stepparents feel like outsiders looking in, expectations shattered, children become more aware of stepparent and biological parents relationship
communication challenges faced by stepfamilies (e.g., feeling caught, etc.)
- feeling caught
- ambiguity of parental roles (friends vs. discipliners), trying to find balance
- regulating boundaries with noncustodial family
- traumatic bonding: most often between mother and daughter, usually veiry close, can create problems in the future, stepparents often jealous
- vying for resources: money, space, privacy
- discrepancies in conflict mgmt. styles
- building solidarity as a family unit
well being of children in step families
more problems in academics, internalizing problems, externalizing behavior problems
explanations for well being of children in step families (e.g., various stress models, step parent involvement model, etc.)
- stress models: reparenting is stressful, marital disruptions are stressful, parental compotence compromised, conflict, economic deprivation, incomplete institutionalization hypothesis (absence of social norms, support)
- stepparent involvement model: stepparents could be disengaged (after rejection) less interaction
- stepparent role model
dialectical tensions in relations with nonresidential parents
- stepchildren want nonresidential parent involved in parenting, and at the same time they resisted it (nonresidential parenting was disruptive in every day lives, anticipated conflict b/t nonresidential parent and stepparent, divided loyalties, fear of all adult coalition of coparenting)
- stepchildren wanted open and intimate comm. with nonresidential parents, yet they found openness to be problematic (managed via segmentation-being open about some topics and closed about others, unsafe to discuss residential parent stepparent or life in the stepfamily household, safe to discuss surface issues only)
family routines
- repetitive behaviors
- crucial to structure of family life
- lack the symbolism and the anticipatory nature that rituals possess
- often activities that family members HAVE to do rather than WANT to do
- rituals that lose meaning or become mundane can take on routine status
- Examples: meals (breakfast, dinner), household chores done together (e.g. cleaning the house on saturday), watching TV together, shopping together (e.g. buying clothes and school supplies at beginning of school year)
family rituals and their qualities
- e.g. funerals, weddings
- symbolic comm.
- acted out in systematic fashion over time
- family members experience satisfaction from rituals
- special meaning that establish and preserve family’s identity
- facilitate family communication
- maintain cohesive bonds in family
- give everyone a shared sense of belonging
- clarify roles
- delineate boundaries (e.g. invite to wedding, don’t invite)
- define rules
- can be specific events, annual happenings, daily occurences
- create values and ideals
- ways to connect and show appreciation