Adolescents' Views on Issues Related to Divorce

Abstract

In this study, 208 junior high school students were asked to imagine that they were divorced parents. Students' views on child custody and visitation issues were related to their current family structure (intact with low or high levels of interparent conflict, mother-headed divorced, or reconstituted with stepfather), gender, and grade (7 or 9). Girls in intact families indicated that they would see their children more frequently than did boys. Boys wanted their imagined ex-spouses to visit more frequently than girls did. All adolescents predicted more frequent visitation by themselves than by their imagined ex-spouses, and this was particularly true for girls in low conflict intact families. When adolescents from intact families were asked to imagine that their parents were getting divorced, ninth graders (relative to seventh graders) and boys (relative to girls) were more likely to want to live with both parents, and girls were more likely than boys to want to live with their mothers. Relative to adolescents in other family structures, adolescents from reconstituted families were most likely to think that a stepparent could replace a real parent. Finally, adolescents in divorced and reconstituted families were asked about current relationships with their fathers. Although these adolescents did not differ in their reports of paternal involvement, both groups of adolescents desired more frequent visitation. Paternal involvement was unrelated to adolescents' age and gender, was negatively related to length of parental separation, and was positively related to adolescents' adjustment.