Journal of Clinical Child Psychology

Felner, Robert D.; Gillespie, Janet F.; Smith, Rebecca

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_1pmid: N/A

Wolchik, Sharlene A.; Braver, Sanford L.; Sandler, Irwin N.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_2pmid: N/A

The present study compares the experiences and adjustment of children in joint and maternal custody arrangements. The subjects were 133 children who had experienced parental separation within the past 30 months and ranged in age from 8 to 15 years. Children were interviewed about their recent divorce-related experiences and completed questionnaires that assessed anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and hostility. Parents also completed a questionnaire about their children's behavior problems. Children in joint custody arrangements reported a significantly greater number of positive experiences than children in maternal custody (p <.05). No differences in child symptomatology occurred across the custody arrangements; however, children in joint custody reported higher levels of self-esteem (p <. 05) and had more weekly contact with the parent with whom they did not primarily reside than did children in maternal custody (p <. 05). The importance of research on the effects of various custody arrangements for the development of sound social policy is discussed.

Copeland, Anne P.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_3pmid: N/A

Children from families undergoing parental separation or divorce were interviewed about their own reactions and adjustment to this disruptive event. The children's mothers were also asked to report on their own reactions, as well as their children's. A subgroup was observed in a play session. Data were used to examine the factor surrounding children who manifested more behavior problems and more recent physical illnesses. Mothers of children who exhibited more behavior problems reported more mood disturbances; if this group consisted of boys, they engaged in less interactive play. Illness had opposite relationships with other variables for boys and girls; boys with more illness had more interactive play sessions with their mothers, whereas girls with more illness had less interactive and more noncontingent play periods. Results are discussed in terms of the different meaning that stress reactions have for both boys and girls and their mothers.

Wyman, Peter A.; Cowen, Emory L.; Hightower, A. Dirk; Pedro-Carroll, JoAnne L.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_4pmid: N/A

Ninety-eight 9-12 year-old children from divorced families were compared to 170 demographically similar children from intact families on measures of perceived competence, self-worth, anxiety, and sources of support. Children of divorce had lower perceived cognitive competence, higher anxiety, and fewer potential sources of social support. For both groups there were low-level associations between sources of support and adjustment. The implications of the findings for further research and for preventive programming for children of divorce are considered.

Felner, Robert D.; Terre, Lisa; Farber, Stephanie S.; Primavera, Judith; Bishop, T.A.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_5pmid: N/A

To explore the attitudes and practices of both judges and attorneys involved in child custody determinations, the present study attempted to elaborate the views of legal professionals on different types of custody arrangements, the criteria that attorneys and judges employ in formulating child custody decisions (particularly joint vs. sole custody), the relative emphasis they accord to each, and policy recommendations for improving the context in which child custody decisions are made. The major findings reveal that legal professionals see joint custody as neither the most desirable nor the appropriate custody arrangement in most cases and they question the ability or motivation of divorcing couples to cooperate to the extent necessary for joint custody to be viable. Their policy recommendations demonstrate the openness of legal professionals to go beyond traditional judicial processes in arriving at custody decisions and underscore the need for close collaboration between the mental health and legal disciplines in this area o f family policy.

Lowery, Carol R.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_6pmid: N/A

The present study examined mental health practitioners' views of the relative importance of various criteria in determining child custody in a divorce. A second focus was the possibility of differences between professionals regularly conducting custody evaluations and their inexperienced colleagues. A broad survey of both psychologists and social workers showed considerable agreement between the two professions in emphasizing relationships among the members of the family and the richness of the social environment in the prospective custodial home. Experienced and inexperienced professionals agreed on this basic approach to custody decisions. The clinicians' opinions are discussed in the context of results from the empirical literature that have demonstrated a relationship between specific variables and children's postdivorce adjustment.

Felner, Robert D.; Terre, Lisa; Goldfarb, Amy; Farber, Stephanie S.; Primavera, Judith; Bishop, T.A.; Aber, Mark S.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_7pmid: N/A

This study reports the results of a survey of both attorneys and judges. The survey was designed to solicit information about their attitudes and practices relevant to the role of children in the custody litigation process. Specifically, the study addressed four major issues: (a) the importance lawyers and judges assign to representation for children in divorce cases, (b) the frequency of solicitation of the child's wishes by both attorneys and judges, (c) the relative emphasis that legal professionals place on the child's wishes when considering criteria to be employed in formulating custody decisions, and (d) clarification o f factors impacting lawyer's perceptions of the child's competence to participate in the adjudication process. Among the most striking features of these results were the lack of widespread support for routine representation of children in the custody process, as well as the fact that a majority of legal professionals failed to endorse the child's best interests as among the criteria they consider most critical in making custody decisions. In addition, a number o f factors that related to the extent to which the child's wishes were considered in the litigation process and emphasis accorded to them were identified.

Stolberg, Arnold L.; Bush, Joseph P.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_8pmid: N/A

Eighty-two mother-child pairs from divorced homes completed measures assessing life change events, marital hostility, parenting skills, parent adjustment, child behavior adjustment, and children's self-concept. A path model was constructed to describe direct and indirect effects of causally ordered prior variables on positive and negative child outcomes. Path coefficients suggested the operation of both direct and mediated effects of background factors, postdivorce adjustment of the custodial parent, and current child-rearing environments on adaptive and maladaptive child outcome variables. The impact of age on children's postdivorce adjustment was found to be mediated by the number of major life events they reported. One "causal path" was found to be significant for several child outcomes: Mothers with more children reported better postdivorce adjustment in themselves, which in turn predicted better self-reported parental functioning. More effective parenting was positively associated with better social skills, more involvement in prosocial activities, and less internalized psychopathology in children.

Roseby, Vivienne; Deutsch, Robin

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_9pmid: N/A

Fifty-seven 9-11-year-old children who had experienced parental separation or divorce participated in one of two divorce intervention groups. The experimental group provided training in cognitive social role taking and assertive communication skills. The placebo control group provided no specific skills training; its focus was the identification and discussion of feelings about the divorce. The children in the cognitive social role-taking group showed significantly more positive change in their beliefs and attitudes about the divorce (as measured by the Children's Attitude Toward Parental Separation Inventory) than did the children in the placebo group. No significant changes in depression (as measured by the Child Depression Scale) or school behavior (as measured by the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale) were found. Results suggest that a period of consolidation may be necessary for changed attitudes and beliefs to produce measurable behavioral and emotional change.

Curry, Sandra L.; Russ, Sandra W.

doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp1401_10pmid: N/A

This study attempted to identify coping strategies in children undergoing stressful dental treatment. Exploratory observations and interviews were conducted with children visiting the dentist. Based upon the coping and cognitive-behavioral literature and upon the exploratory data, nine categories of coping were identified. A Behavioral Coping Observation Scale and a Cognitive Coping Interview were then developed and administered to 30 children visiting the dentist, 8-10 years of age. Both scales were found to have good interrater reliability. Normative data are presented. All nine coping categories were represented in the sample, and every child utilized at least two cognitive coping responses and one behavioral coping response. The average child in the study employed a variety of coping strategies. There was a relationship between age and type of coping strategy used. Low correlations between individual cognitive coping categories and significant correlations between individual categories and total coping scores suggest that relatively distinct forms of coping have been identified. The present study was successful in identifying and reliably classifying a range of coping strategies that children bring to a routine stressful event in their lives. Suggestions are made for using the method presented to study coping in children under other stressful conditions.