Stewart 1
The Effects of Divorce on Adolescents
Roseann Stewart
Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Darling
March 12th, 2013
Stewart 2
ABSTRACT
There are some negative assosociation between divorce and adolescent well being.
Stewart 3
There has been ample research into children's adjust after their parents have divorced
each other. Many researchers found there to be negative effects of divorce and how the child or
adolescent reacts to the divorce varies. Researchers have also found that many factors such as
time after the divorce, age when the divorce occurred, and gender contribute to how the
adolescent react to the sudden change in lifestyle (Lansford, 2009). Children and adolescents of
divorced parents are at a higher risk of low academic performance in school, internalizing their
feelings or externalizing emotions and poor social skills (Lansford, 2009). The purpose of this
paper is to review literature to discover any negative associations that divorce may have on
adolescents.
ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS
After a split from their significant other, the newly divorce parents face financial hardship
in supporting their children. The money becomes limited and stretched thin so the adolescents
may not be able to get everything they need when they need it due access to only one income.
The stress of the lack of finances puts negative pressure on the parents to provide with what little
they have unintentionally influences the adolescent into depression. Adolescents of divorced
parents are at higher risk of developing depression than adolescents in a two-parent home
(Aseltine, 1996).
Many parents as a result of divorce have lower incomes that put them and their children
into poverty levels. The families often have to move to a lace that accommodates their new
Stewart 4
living situations. The children then display emotional and behavioral problems while trying to
cope with their new life. Meanwhile children that come from intact families show lower signs of
having any behavioral or emotional problems as children of divorced parents (Lansford, 2009).
EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS
Delinquency
According to Burt, Barnes, McGue and Iacono (2008), adolescent delinquency is not
linked by a common gene. These researchers set up a study to support the idea of a common
gene for adolescent delinquency post divorce among birth or adopted siblings. The participants
were drawn from a population-based study of birth and adopted siblings. The participants and
parents were assessed with self-reports, adolescents used a test from the DSM-IV while parents
used a reliable questionnaire about their marriage.
The study found as stated above that a common gene is not responsible for adolescent
delinquency but how the adolescent experienced the divorce itself that led into the delinquency.
Some evidence does show that adolescent delinquency may be a predated problem to divorce.
Although the study did find a positive association between adolescent delinquency and divorce,
the associatio,n at one percent, was very small (Burt, Barnes, McGue and Iacono, 2008).
Aggression
Hamana and Ronen-Shenhav (2012) found that adolescents of parents who divorced selfreported to having additional feelings of aggression than their peers in intact two parent families.
Stewart 5
This finding is supported with research done by other researchers on this subject matter of
behavioral issues within adolescents of divorced parents.
GENDER DIFFERENCES
If parents divorced during the adolescent years then boys were more likely to externalize
their behavior than girls up to a year after the divorce. After the year, the boys externalizing
behaviors would drop down significantly (Lansford, 2009). Girls are less likely to have thoughts
of hostility and act out physically than boys after a divorce, which for boys is viewed as socially
acceptable. (Hamana and Ronen-Shenhav, 2012).
According to Silverberg Koerner, Wallace, Jacobs Lehman, Lee, & Escalante (2004),
divorced mothers are more likely to speak about sensitive topic or be more sensitive to their
daughters rather than their sons, this occurring within two years after the divorce is finalized.
This suggests that mother-daughter relationships are more intimate and more open than those of
mother-son relationships. Female adolescents are more sensitive and need a caring person to
guide them as they form their personalities into a more sensitive one.
Silverberg Koerner, Wallace, Jacobs Lehman, Lee, & Escalante (2004) also found that
daughters were more in favor of getting more attention from parents and emotional support than
the sons. When compared to intact two parent families, the daughters of divorced parents
showed higher risk of becoming depressed or showing depression symptoms.
Stewart 6
Contrary to Silverberg Koerner, Wallace, Jacobs Lehman, Lee, & Escalante (2004),
Risch, Jodl, and Eccles (2004), conducted a longitudinal study on the father-adolescent
relationship after a divorce. Some statistically significant findings were adolescent sons that
were close to their fathers prior to divorce continued that same closeness through adulthood and
felt as though they would not get divorced in their lifetime. The father-son attachment allowed
more positivity about the divorce. As for the daughters in this study, the father-daughter
relationship did not interfere with the daughter's perception on marriage or the divorce.
LIMITATIONS
Many of the studies conducted were after the parents have divorced and the children
appeared to be suffering in various ways. The main limitation to the studies were that there was
not a baseline to how the children's or adolescents' behaviors were prior to the divorce leading
researchers to presume some of the problems such as externalizing and internalizing behaviors
may have been present before.
Most of the studies run into problems such as timing of effects after a divorce. The
amount of time the parents have been divorced is significant in determining how a child may be
impacted to the situations (Lansford, 2008; Silverberg Koerner, Wallace, Jacobs Lehman, Lee, &
Escalante, 2004). This gives way to more longitudinal studies to be conducted to give a better
look into divorced families over the years.
Stewart 7
The sampling size on some of the study should be larger so that the research can be used
to generalize the population of divorced families and intact two parent families also. The
researchers must take into account that in order to generalize the sample must be spread out over
the nation instead of in region to capture an accurate representation of the population.
The race of the majority of the families that were studied was white families. Although
the majority of the United States is white, researchers should find a way to sample more
minorities so the human services field may have an understanding to how different culture deal
with divorce and the effects that it may have on the children and adolescents as well as the
parents.
CONCLUSION
Divorce is a process that not only affects the parents but affects their children greatly.
Divorce can leave the children feeling alone or feel that they have to choose the side of one
parent or the other. The economic hardships of tearing the household in half with only one
income to live of off can be stressful to the parent and cause depression amongst adolescents.
Other negative effects of divorce are externalizing behaviors such as delinquency and
aggression in the adolescent. Adolescent delinquency did show to have a positive association
with divorce but it was not large enough to make generalizations off of. The other negative
effect, aggression, also proved to have a positive association to divorce when compared to intact
two parent families. These findings could not be used for generalization because it was not
representative of the population.
Stewart 8
Some research found gender differences among their sample. It was found that males
are more likely to externalize behaviors and females were more likely to internalize their
behaviors as a result of a parental divorce. While females could seek guidance and support from
their mothers, who seemed to show more sensitivity towards their daughters, the sons did not
have evidence of having that same treatment. When it came to the father-son relationship
attachment, adolescent sons learned more from their fathers about how to maintain intimate
relationships that last long.