EFFECTS OF PARENTAL DIVORCE AND MEMORIES OF FAMILY PROBLEMS ON RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ADULT CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS

We examined adult child-parent relations by childhood family structure and memories of family problems. Relative to those who grew up in two -parent families, adult children of divorce perceive both relationship s with mothers and fathers to be of lower quality, although the magnit ude of effects is generally two or three times greater for fathers. We find these effects to be significant for positive features of father- child relations whereby adult children of divorce report feeling signi ficantly less loved and less listened to by their fathers. While in mo st cases part of the effect of parental divorce on relationship qualit y can be explained by memories of parental marital conflict or other f amily problems, there is one exception. Even controlling for memories of family problems, we find adult children of divorce have significant ly less contact with their parents than adults from two-parent familie s. We also examine data about parental surrogates.