De effecten van de ouder-kind relatie op probleemgedrag na scheiding Een onderzoek naar het verband tussen disclosure en warmte in ouder-kind relaties na scheiding en het probleemgedrag van adolescenten, met daarbij de rol van sekse.

Abstract

Background. About 33% of marriages end in divorce, which are particularly harmful to children. Compared to children from intact families, children and adolescents from divorced families are more likely to develop problem behaviors and to have poorer relationships with their parents. Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between parental warmth and disclosure in the parent-child relationship and adolescent problem behavior after divorce. Method. The sample consisted of 188 Dutch adolescents aged 11 to 19, whose parents are divorced. Gender was included as a moderator in the association between the parent-child relationship and problem behavior. In addition, associations were examined separately with regard to fathers and mothers. The data were collected through online self-report questionnaires. In this study, independent T-tests were used to examine the gender differences in variables. After that, multiple regressions were used to measure the main effects and interaction effects for the variables disclosure, warmth, problem behavior and gender. Results. This study showed that externalizing problem behavior after divorce did not significantly differ based on adolescents’ gender, whereas internalizing problem behavior did. In this regard, girls show significantly more internalizing behavior than boys. Effects between disclosure from mother and warmth from both parents on internalizing problem behavior were significantly present for girls, but not for boys. One interaction effect was found between warmth from mother and externalizing problem behavior, which means that the effect is less strong for boys than for girls. Conclusion. Warmth and disclosure in the parent-child relationship are important predictors for the development of externalizing problem behavior. However, gender is not as significant as thought in this regard. Only one interaction effect was found, which was warmth mother x gender on externalizing problem behavior.