TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal acceptance and consistency of discipline as buffers of divorce stressors on children's psychological adjustment problems
AU - Wolchik, Sharlene
AU - Wilcox, Kathryn L.
AU - Tein, Jenn-Yun
AU - Sandler, Irwin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant P30MH39246. The authors wish to thank Philip Poirier, Ernest Fairchild, Bruce Fogas, and Kathleen Nelson for their assistance with this manuscript, and the mothers and children for their participation. They also want to thank Sharlene’s children, Katie and Lauren, for helping her learn about mothering.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - This study examines whether two aspects of mothering - acceptance and consistency of discipline - buffer the effect of divorce stressors on adjustment problems in 678 children, ages 8 to 15, whose families had divorced within the past 2 years. Children reported on divorce stressors; both mothers and children reported on mothering and internalizing and externalizing problems. Multiple regressions indicate that for maternal report of mothering, acceptance interacted with divorce stressors in predicting both dimensions of adjustment problems, with the pattern of findings supporting a stress-buffering effect. For child report of mothering, acceptance, consistency of discipline, and divorce stressors interacted in predicting adjustment problems. The relation between divorce stressors and internalizing and externalizing problems is stronger for children who report low acceptance and low consistency of discipline than for children who report either low acceptance and high consistency of discipline or high acceptance and low consistency of discipline. Children reporting high acceptance and high consistency of discipline have the lowest levels of adjustment problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment and interventions for divorced families are discussed.
AB - This study examines whether two aspects of mothering - acceptance and consistency of discipline - buffer the effect of divorce stressors on adjustment problems in 678 children, ages 8 to 15, whose families had divorced within the past 2 years. Children reported on divorce stressors; both mothers and children reported on mothering and internalizing and externalizing problems. Multiple regressions indicate that for maternal report of mothering, acceptance interacted with divorce stressors in predicting both dimensions of adjustment problems, with the pattern of findings supporting a stress-buffering effect. For child report of mothering, acceptance, consistency of discipline, and divorce stressors interacted in predicting adjustment problems. The relation between divorce stressors and internalizing and externalizing problems is stronger for children who report low acceptance and low consistency of discipline than for children who report either low acceptance and high consistency of discipline or high acceptance and low consistency of discipline. Children reporting high acceptance and high consistency of discipline have the lowest levels of adjustment problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment and interventions for divorced families are discussed.
KW - Authoritative parenting
KW - Children's postdivorce adjustment
KW - Divorce
KW - Stress-buffer effects
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1005178203702
DO - 10.1023/A:1005178203702
M3 - Article
C2 - 10772352
AN - SCOPUS:0034070608
SN - 0091-0627
VL - 28
SP - 87
EP - 102
JO - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
IS - 1
ER -