ERIC Number: ED261267
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1985-Apr-22
Pages: 38
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Effects of Divorce on Children of Different Ages: A Descriptive Study.
Schwartz, Lita Linzer
The impact of divorce on children seems to vary according to the child's age. Previous studies on the impact of divorce on children have generally focused on pre-schoolers and elementary-age children. Since more long-term marriages are ending in divorce, attention should also be given to adolescent and adult children of divorce. Subjects (N=26) who were 11 years old or older at the time of their parents' divorce responded to an instrument assessing their feelings at the time of the divorce and their feelings at the time they completed the questionnaire. Parents completed similar questionnaires for children (N=9) who were younger than 11 at the time of divorce. Parents' responses for the younger group of children indicated that the younger children were, in general, less troubled than the older ones at the time of the separation or divorce. The older children, in contrast, tended to show a wide range of responses and were more sensitive to their feelings at the time of separation as well as in the present. They reported feeling angrier and more depressed than the younger children at the time of divorce and also reported feeling unhappier than the younger children both at the time of divorce and at present. The older children, who were generally more variable in their self-ratings than the parents were in rating the younger children, also showed a larger mean score for total change than did the younger children. (DPO)
Publication Type: Information Analyses; Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Orthopsychiatric Association (New York, NY, April 20-24, 1985). Study funded by the Faculty Scholarship Support Fund of the Pennsylvania State University.