Adolescent school performance following parental divorce: are there family factors that can enhance success?
Most research on the effects of divorce on children has focused on delineation of specific areas of child maladjustment. A more optimistic approach seeks to identify variables that may mediate negative effects of a stressor, such as parental divorce. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between one area of child adjustment, school achievement, and family factors which may mediate the negative influence of divorce. The subjects were 71 early adolescents and their recently divorced mothers. The adolescents were divided into low, medium, and high grade achievement groups. Analyses of variance and subsequent Newman-Keuls tests revealed that adolescents with high grade point averages had mothers with a lower level of depression, a higher educational level, less conflict with their ex-spouse, and less intense levels of conflict between mother and adolescent than those in the low grade point average group. A discriminant analysis resulted in a two-variable equation which accounted for 33% of the variance between low and high grade achievers. The two variables were mother's report of conflict between her and her ex-spouse in front of the adolescent and the adolescent's report of the intensity of arguments between him/herself and mother. These results indicated that school performance following divorce is not uniform for all adolescents and that family factors may mediate scholastic achievement problems.
McCombs
A
A
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
Forehand
R
R
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004243:Divorce / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology