Impact of Divorce on Parental Relationship and Child Involvement

Study Notes

Impact of Divorce on Children

Parents competing for child's love/affection can make the child feel disloyal and uncertain about their feelings towards each parent.
Using the child as a go-between can be detrimental to their well-being, and cooperative parenting can mitigate this effect.
Parental conflict, whether the parents are together or divorced, has a negative impact on the child.

Factors Affecting Children's Adjustment to Divorce

Younger children's behavior may decline for about a year after divorce, while older children may experience a decline in academic performance for about a year.
Children's age at the time of divorce affects their adjustment, with younger children being more adaptable and older children taking longer to adapt.
Reactive children take longer to adapt to divorce.
Authoritative parenting styles, which involve explaining the divorce and its implications to the child, can help them cope better.

Blended Families

Stepfathers tend not to play a significant role in the child's life, but those who are warm and loving can form a better connection with boys.
Girls whose mothers remarry may have difficulty remarrying themselves and may become closer to their mothers.
Children in blended families may feel that step-parents favor their biological children, leading to conflict between spouses and with the ex-partner.

Grandparents and Grandchildren

Most children have contact with their grandparents, with grandmothers being more involved in childcare.
Maternal grandparents tend to be more involved with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents.
The quality of the grandparent-grandchild relationship often depends on the grandparent's relationship with the parent.

Categories of Grandparents

Influential grandparents take on a parenting role, while supportive grandparents are involved in their grandchildren's lives but do not initiate much contact.
Passive grandparents keep up with their grandchildren but do not take the initiative, while authority-oriented grandparents are more strict and less fun.
Detached grandparents have minimal involvement with their grandchildren.

Birth Order and Parenting Style

First-born children tend to have higher IQs, are more likely to attend university, and are more compliant with parental requests.
Later-born children are more social and easy-going due to their parents' more relaxed expectations.

Adopted Children

The issues that bring children into the adoption system can have a lasting impact on their lives.
The fact of being adopted alone has no inherent impact on the child's development.
Older adopted children may have experienced neglect or abuse and may have behavioral issues.

Sibling Relationships

Parental behavior, such as mothers tending to babies and fathers paying attention to oldest children, can shape sibling relationships.

Description

This quiz explores the various impacts of divorce on parental relationships, such as competing for a child's love, using the child as a go-between, and the importance of parental involvement. It also discusses how parental conflict, whether divorced or not, can affect children differently based on the level of conflict.