Cognitive moderators of children's adjustment to stressful divorce events:The role of negative cognitive errors and positive illusions

Citation
E. Mazur et al., Cognitive moderators of children's adjustment to stressful divorce events:The role of negative cognitive errors and positive illusions, CHILD DEV, 70(1), 1999, pp. 231-245
Citations number
117
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
ISSN journal
00093920 → ACNP
Volume
70
Issue
1
Year of publication
1999
Pages
231 - 245
Database
ISI
SICI code
0009-3920(199901/02)70:1<231:CMOCAT>2.0.ZU;2-#
Abstract
This study examined whether children's cognitive appraisal biases moderate the impact of stressful divorce-related events on psychological adjustment in 355 children ages 9 to 12, whose families had experienced divorce within the past 2 years. Multiple regression indicated that endorsement of negati ve cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderates the relations between stressful divorce events and self- and maternal reports of interna lizing and externalizing symptoms, but only for older children. Positive il lusions buffer the effects of stressful divorce events on child-reported de pression and mother-reported externalizing problems. Implications of these results for theories of stress and coping, as well as for interventions for children of divorced families, are discussed.