Describe the long-term consequences of divorce on children. What factors help children make a more positive adjustment?

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

Most children show improved adjustment by two years after divorce. Yet overall, children and adolescents of divorced parents continue to score slightly lower than children of continuously married parents in academic achievement, self-esteem, and social competence. And divorce is linked to problems with adolescent sexuality and development of intimate ties. Young people who experienced parental divorce—especially more than once—display higher rates of early sexual activity and adolescent parenthood. Some show other lasting difficulties—reduced educational attainment, troubled romantic relationships and marriages, and divorce in adulthood.
The overriding factor in positive adjustment following divorce is effective parenting—shielding the child from family conflict and using authoritative child rearing. Parent-training programs can help custodial parents support their children’s development. Where the custodial parent is the mother, the father’s regular contact with the child is important. The more paternal contact and the warmer the father–child relationship, the less children react with internalizing and externalizing problems. A few studies report that outcomes for children are better when the father is the custodial parent. Fathers’ greater economic security and image of authority may help them engage in effective parenting. At the same time, single mothers tend to provide children with more warmth, monitoring, and supervision than fathers. In most investigations, children in mother-custody and father-custody homes do not differ on any measure of psychological well-being.
Divorcing parents who manage to engage in coparenting, supporting each other in their child-rearing roles, greatly improve their children’s chances of growing up competent, stable, and happy.