Parental divorce during young adulthood: Effects on development, coping, and adjustment.

Abstract

Parental divorce during young adulthood is on the rise. Yet it is a topic which has been given little attention in the psychological literature. Most of the research on this topic to date has been exploratory and descriptive. These previous studies suggested that there is a profound impact of parental divorce on this age group. The present research compared college students (n = 67) whose parents had separated or divorced within the past two years to those whose parents had divorced earlier in their lives (n = 84) and those from intact homes (n = 93). It looked at the effects of recent parental divorce on development, coping, and overall adjustment. It was hypothesized that recent parental divorce among young adults would prove itself to be a major life stressor which would necessitate active coping. It was further hypothesized that recent parental divorce would lead to delays in developmental progress, changes for the worse in overall family relationships, and poor adjustment. All subjects completed a series of paper and pencil questionnaires measuring: developmental progress, life stress, coping, mood, social support, attributional style, academic performance, family conflict and functioning, academic performance, and attitudes about intimate relationships. Results revealed that subjects whose parents had recently separated or divorced were experiencing high levels of life stress and were actively relying on varied coping strategies. These subjects perceived themselves as having less financial support, which was associated with negative mood. They also had more negative feelings about family relationships, which was also strongly correlated with negative mood. There were no group differences with respect to developmental progress, academic performance, or feelings about intimate relationships. Both social support and optimistic explanatory style seemed to serve as buffers from life stress for subjects. Exploratory post hoc causal modeling examined further the relationship between parental marital status, coping, and outcome. Limitations of the research and suggestions for further studies were explored. In addition, results of this study were discussed in terms of the need for university settings to respond to the difficulties of this population.