A study of the effects of divorce on parent-child relationships

Nicole Cloutier

and

Krista Doucette

Does divorce effect parent-child relationships?

• Hypothesis #1– We believe that divorce has a negative effect on

parent-child relationships.– This is based on what we found in our

literature, as well as on our own personal opinions.

Is there a difference in the relationship with the custodial parent?

• Hypothesis #2– We believe that the relationship between the

parent and child will be better with the custodial parent.

– Our reason for this is also because of literature and personal opinions.

Variables

• Independent variable– whether or not the participants come from a

divorced family

• Dependent variable– the relationship between the parent and child in

general, as well as following divorce

Methodology

• Participants– 50 university undergraduate students– 25 males, 25 females– voluntary participation– mean age of 20.18– 15 came from divorced families, 35 came from

non-divorced families

Methodology

• Materials– questionnaire from Thomas, Booth-Butterfield,

& Booth-Butterfiled, 1995– gives us demographic information– also gives us information on the divorce, in

situations where the participants come from a divorced family

– questionnaire we developed (ERBPC)

Methodology

– 15 questions asking participants about their relationship with their parents

– scored on a Likert scale• 1= strongly disagree

• 5= strongly agree

• Procedure– all participants were asked to fill out the

demographic and relationship questionnaires

Methodology

– Participants who came from divorced families were asked to fill out the information on the divorce

– Surveys were collected and analyzed

• Scoring– To determine whether there is a negative or

positive parent-child relationship, we added up the scores on our relationship questionnaire

Methodology

– These scores were added up for both our divorced group and non-divorced group

– the lower the score, the more negative the relationship between parent and child

– to test if there is a difference between divorced and non-divorced relationships, we used a independent sample t-test

Methodology

– To determine if there was a difference in the relationship of custodial parent compared to the non-custodial parent, we compared scores on certain questions (1, 6, 14 and 2, 7, 15)

– these questions asked things such as• My mother and I respect each other

• My father and I respect each other

– The lower mean score of the two groups of questions meant that there was a more negative relationship

Methodology

• The lower mean score of the two groups of questions meant that there was a more negative relationship

• To evaluate this relationship, we used a paired sample t-test

Results

• Hypothesis #1– This hypothesis was supported– t(19.67)=5.74, p<.001– divorced family (M=46.47, SD=10.30)– non-divorced family (M=63.14, SD=6.94)– since the mean score for divorced is lower than

non-divorced, it supports our hypothesis

Marriage

divorcedMarried

Me

an

ER

BP

C

75

70

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

Results

• Hypothesis #2– hypothesis was supported– t(11)=2.33, p<.05– custodial parent (M=12.08, SD=2.75)– non-custodial parent (M=7.92, SD=3.94)– Since the non-custodial mean score is lower,

this indicates a better relationship with the custodial parent, supporting our hypothesis.

NONCUSTCUSTODIA

Me

an

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

Improvements and Limitations

• Take into consideration deceased parents, step families, children who live with both parents back and forth following a divorce, parents who left and had no contact

• Use a bigger sample

• Equal numbers of groups compared– example: same number of divorced and non-

divorced participants

Future Research

• Study gender effects on parent-child relationships

• Study gender effects on custody parent-child relationships

• Study effects that being raised by a step parent rather than biological parent may have