“Ik vind papa en mama allebei even lief!”: Ouderlijke conflicten, ouderkind coalities en loyaliteitsproblemen van jongens en meisjes in gezinnen na scheiding

Abstract

Every year 86,000 Dutch children are confronted with a parental divorce. On average, these children experience more problems than their peers from intact families. Not only the divorce itself, but also the factors often associated with divorce can interfere with children’s development. For example, loyalty problems, which are strongly associated with parental conflicts after divorce. In addition, these conflicts may cause serious negative consequences for children, such as behavioral problems. Moreover, parental conflicts increase the chance of a parent-child coalition. To date, there is insufficient research on the relationship between these factors in young children and the possible differences between gender. Therefore, this study examines the role of parental conflicts and the parent-child coalitions on loyalty problems in boys and girls between the age 7 and 13 after divorce. The dataset used in this study comes from an RCT study of the intervention KIES and consists of 156 children. They were followed for a year over four different times of measurement trough questionnaires. The results show a significant association between parental conflict and loyalty problems and this was more often found in girls. Also, more girls seem to be involved in strong parent-child coalitions. At t4, evidence has been found that this may lead to a reduction in loyalty problems. Conversely, boys in a strong parent-child coalition seem to experience an increase in loyalty problems. Future research should focus on the ways parent-child coalitions may work out differently for boys and girls, and the long-term problems this may cause.