Child adjustment to separation or divorce of parents

Authors

  • Hélder Silva Raposo Universidade do Minho
  • Barbara Fernandes de Carvalho Figueiredo UM; Departamento de Psicologia
  • Diogo Jorge Pereira do Vale Lamela UM
  • Rui Alexandre Nunes-Costa Universidade do Minho
  • Maria Conceição Castro Universidade do Minho
  • Joana Prego Universidade do Minho

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-60832011000100007

Keywords:

Adjustment, children, divorce, co-parenting, inter-parental conflict

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Current theoretical and empirical evidences about the impact and the factors associated with the impact of parents' separation/divorce in children's adjustment were related and examined. METHOD: An aggregative literature review was made, using the keywords "divorce adjustment", "child divorce" e "divorce impact", from the databases JSTOR, PsycInfo, SciELO, and Medline and from reference books. RESULTS: Child unadaptive and adaptive responses are described, as well as potential positive results. Mediators and moderators factors of the impact of parents' separation/divorce in children's adjustment often referenced in literature are mainly discussed. Among these are: characteristics of children, financial problems, parents' psychopathological symptoms, quality of parenting practices and inter-parental conflict. DISCUSSION: Based on the existing results, and considering the divorce as a developmental transition, we put a hypothesis that adjustment problems showed by children's of divorce can be better explained by other factors than the divorce/separation by itself. Finally we assume a conceptual innovation that this familiar transition can represent a growth opportunity and developmental promotion.

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Published

2011-01-01

Issue

Section

Reviews of Literature

How to Cite

Child adjustment to separation or divorce of parents . (2011). Archives of Clinical Psychiatry, 38(1), 29-33. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-60832011000100007