Parental divorce, parent-child relations, and early adult relationships: Alongitudinal Australian study

Evidence shows that the children of divorce are themselves more prone to re lationship breakdown, and it has been argued that poorer parent-child relat ions are one cause of this intergenerational transmission. The issue is exp lored in a longitudinal sample of adolescents from divorced and nondivorced homes. The sample was interviewed at the time of parental divorce for the target group (N=78), when they were aged 13 to 16, again 3 years later (N=6 5), and again 10 years later (N=67), when aged 23 to 27. At each wave of in terviews, respondents completed the Parent Bonding Inventory (PBI), a measu re of the child's perception of each parent's behavior toward him or her. A t age 23 to 27 years, respondents also completed measures of their attitude s to relationships and intimacy with peers, their satisfaction with their c urrent close relationships, and the amount of conflict within these relatio nships. No differences were found on the adult relationship measures betwee n those from divorced and nondivorced families, or between sons and daughte rs. However, at each wave of interviews fathers were seen as less caring th an mothers, and divorced fathers were seen as particularly low in care. The re were no differences in the descriptions of divorced and nondivorced moth ers. Time 3 ratings of mothers and fathers on care and overprotection were correlated with all the adult relationship measures, and the Time 1 and Tim e 2 father ratings also predicted the adult relationship measures. Care rat ings were more strongly associated with the outcome measures than were over protection ratings, but Time 1 father overprotection ratings and Tune 3 mot her overprotection ratings were also relevant. The relative importance of t he different scales-and their interaction with the age of the child-is brie fly discussed.