Compare and contrast adolescents and emerging adults from divorced and nondivorced families.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Most researchers agree that children, adolescents, and emerging adults from divorced families show poorer adjustment than their counterparts in nondivorced families. A study by Mavis Hetherington and her colleagues revealed that 25 percent of children from divorced families had emotional problems, compared to 10 percent of children from nondivorced families. In this research, the 20 percent of emerging adults from divorced families who continued to have emotional problems were characterized by impulsive, irresponsible, antisocial behavior or were depressed. Toward the end of emerging adulthood, this troubled group was having problems at work and difficulties in romantic relationships. The 10 percent of emerging adults from nondivorced families who had emotional problems mainly came from homes where family conflict was high and authoritative parenting was rare. In another longitudinal study, parental divorce in childhood and adolescence was linked to poor relationships with fathers, unstable romantic or marital relationships, and low levels of education in adulthood.
Those who have experienced multiple divorces are at greater risk. Adolescents and emerging adults from divorced families are more likely than adolescents from nondivorced families to have academic problems and to show externalized and internalized problems. In addition, they are less socially responsible, have less competent intimate relationships, and are more likely to drop out of school, become sexually active at younger ages, take drugs, associate with antisocial peers, and have low self-esteem.