The Mother-Child Relationship and Children's Appraisals of Negative Divorce Events.

N

13

Adjustment (to Environment); Attachment Behavior; Children; Discipline; Divorce; Fatherless Family; Mothers; Parent Child Relationship; Security (Psychology); Social Support Groups; Stress Variables

This study examined associations between children's and mothers' perceptions of their relationships and children's biased appraisals of hypothetical negative divorce events. Such appraisals have been found to predict children's psychological adjustment. Subjects were 38 custodial, divorced mothers who had not remarried, and their children, of 8 to 12 years of age. There was a significant correlation between children's scores on a scale of negative cognitive errors and their reports of their mothers as rejecting, as providing less support than other mothers, and as unavailable to give support. Children's scores also correlated with mothers' reports of increased inconsistency about discipline. Children's scores on a scale that measured positive illusions (high self-regard, the illusion of personal control, and optimism for the future) correlated significantly with their reports of their mothers as being supportive of their problems and their feelings, and as providing support. Again, scores also correlated with mothers' reports of being inconsistent about discipline. Results suggest that an unsupportive and rejecting mother-child relationship may contribute to children's negatively biased appraisals of stressful divorce-related events, and that a supportive mother-child relationship may give a child the security to appraise divorce stressors in a more adaptive and less threatening manner. Appended are eight references. (Author/GLR)

1992

ED344666