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JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 8,305315 (1987) Adolescent Functioning as a Consequence of Recent Parental Divorce and the Parent-Adolescent Relationship REX FOREHAND, KENNETH MIDDLETON, AND NICHOLAS LONG University of Georgia The purpose of this study wos to examine young adolescents functioning OS a consequence of recent parental divorce and the porent-adolescent relationship. More specifically, recent divorce and o poor adolescent relationship with each parent were viewed OS stressors, and it wos hypothesized that OS the number of &son increased, adolescent functionin would detertomte. Fifty-eight young ado- lescents (acres 11-14). 30 from intact fami ies and 28 from recentlv divorced families, B and their s&iol-stud&s teachers participated in the study. Adolescents completed on instrument designed to measure their relationship with each parent. Bared on this instrument and the marital status of the parents, adolescents were assigned to 1 of 6 groups depending upon whether they were from intact or divorced families ond whether they had a good relationship with both, one, or neither parent(s). Gmdes were obtained from the adolescent’s most recent report card and social studies teachers completed instruments concerning cognitive and social competence, includ- ing internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The results indicated that both the marital status of the parent and the parent-adolescent relationship were related to adolescent functioning. Of particular importance, the presence of 3 stressors (divorce, poor relationship with mother, and poor relationshi with father) was associated with more adolescent difficulties than the presence oP 0, 1, or 2 stresson. Hypotheses for the obtained results and implications are discussed. Czikszentmihalyi and Larson (1984) have suggested that the family provides a setting for adolescents. to recover from the stresses of daily life. For this to occur, the home needs to be a rather harmonious environment; unfortunately, this frequently is not the case. Two factors that may disrupt the potential positive influence of the family on the adolescent are parental divorce and a poor parent- adolescent relationship. Both of these variables have been viewed as stressors (e.g., Montemayor, 1983; Rutter, 1981) that are associated with maladaptive functioning of adolescents. This research was supported in part by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia’s Institute for Behavioral Research. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Rex Forehand, Psychology Lkpart- ment, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. 305

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Page 1: Adolescent functioning as a consequence of recent parental divorce and the parent-adolescent relationship

JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 8,305315 (1987)

Adolescent Functioning as a Consequence of Recent Parental

Divorce and the Parent-Adolescent Relationship

REX FOREHAND, KENNETH MIDDLETON, AND NICHOLAS LONG

University of Georgia

The purpose of this study wos to examine young adolescents functioning OS a consequence of recent parental divorce and the porent-adolescent relationship. More specifically, recent divorce and o poor adolescent relationship with each parent were viewed OS stressors, and it wos hypothesized that OS the number of &son increased, adolescent functionin would detertomte. Fifty-eight young ado- lescents (acres 11-14). 30 from intact fami ies and 28 from recentlv divorced families, B and their s&iol-stud&s teachers participated in the study. Adolescents completed on instrument designed to measure their relationship with each parent. Bared on this instrument and the marital status of the parents, adolescents were assigned to 1 of 6 groups depending upon whether they were from intact or divorced families ond whether they had a good relationship with both, one, or neither parent(s). Gmdes were obtained from the adolescent’s most recent report card and social studies teachers completed instruments concerning cognitive and social competence, includ- ing internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The results indicated that both the marital status of the parent and the parent-adolescent relationship were related to adolescent functioning. Of particular importance, the presence of 3 stressors (divorce, poor relationship with mother, and poor relationshi with father) was associated with more adolescent difficulties than the presence o P 0, 1, or 2 stresson. Hypotheses for the obtained results and implications are discussed.

Czikszentmihalyi and Larson (1984) have suggested that the family provides a setting for adolescents. to recover from the stresses of daily life. For this to occur, the home needs to be a rather harmonious environment; unfortunately, this frequently is not the case. Two factors that may disrupt the potential positive influence of the family on the adolescent are parental divorce and a poor parent- adolescent relationship. Both of these variables have been viewed as stressors (e.g., Montemayor, 1983; Rutter, 1981) that are associated with maladaptive functioning of adolescents.

This research was supported in part by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia’s Institute for Behavioral Research.

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Rex Forehand, Psychology Lkpart- ment, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.

305

Page 2: Adolescent functioning as a consequence of recent parental divorce and the parent-adolescent relationship

306 FOREHAND, MIDDLETON, AND LONG

Most investigators have found that divorce is detrimental for children and adolescents (see Atkeson, Forehand, & Rickard, 1982, for a review). Both short and long term difficulties, including inferior academic performance, extemaliz- ing problems (acting out/disruptive behaviors), and internalizing problems (anx- iety, depression) have been reported (e.g., Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1978, 1985; Wallerstein, 1985). The detrimental effects are particularly pronounced during the first year following divorce (e.g., Hetherington et al., 1978).

A poor parent-adolescent relationship has also been associated with adoles- cent problem behaviors (see Montemayor, 1983, for review). These difficulties again include academic, externalizing, and internalizing problems (e.g., Bach- man, 1970; Forehand, Long, Brody, & Fauber, 1986).

Our view, like that of others (e.g., Montemayor, 1983; Rutter, 1981), is that both parental divorce and a poor parent-adolescent relationship are stressors for adolescents. Rutter (1978) has suggested that children who experience only a single stress (e.g., divorce) are not at significant risk for adjustment difficulties. However, for those children who experience stress from several sources (e.g., divorce coupled with a poor relationship with both parents), the adverse effects may increase as a function of the number of stressors. The present study was designed to examine the effects of recent divorce and the adolescent-parent relationship on young adolescents’ functioning. It was hypothesized that both of these factors would be related to how the adolescent adjusts in the school setting. More specifically, we expected that as the number of stressors increased, adoles- cent adaptive functioning would decrease.

METHOD

Subjects Fii-eighf adolescents (29 male, 29 female) and their social-studies teachers participated in this study as part of a larger research project. The adolescents ranged in age from 11 years, 3 months to 14 years, 11 months.

Thirty (16 male, 14 female) of the subjects were from intact families and 28 (13 male, 15 female) were from divorced families. A family was labeled as intact if the adolescent’s parents were still married. A family was labeled as divorced if the adolescent’s biological parents were divorced within the last 12 months. Length of time since divorce was 1 to 11 months with a mean of 6.1 months. The mother had custody of all adolescents in the divorced group.

Each mother’s and father’s socioeconomic status (SES) was calculated using Myers and Bean’s (1968) two-factor index of social position. This index uses occupational and educational level as indicators of social position. Scores may range from 11 to 77, with lower scores indicating a higher SES. Scores ranged from 11 to 66 in the present study.

Page 3: Adolescent functioning as a consequence of recent parental divorce and the parent-adolescent relationship

DIVORCE AND ADOLESCENT FUNCTIONING

Potential subjects were first made aware of the project through notices in local agencies, schools, parks, and so forth. Moreover, lists of recently divorced parents of young adolescents were gatbered from local court records. They were then contacted by phone and/or by mail.

Design A 2 x 3 factorial design was used. The independent variables were parental marital status (married vs. divorced) and the type of relationship the adolescent had with his or her parents. The adolescent could have: (a) a good relationship with both parents, (b) a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent, or (c) a poor relationship with both parents. Thus, the study consisted of 6 groups.

A short form of the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) (see Independent Measures section) was completed by the adolescent for each parent to classify his or her relationship with that parent. An adolescent was classified as having a good relationship with a parent if he or she had a score of 1 or 0. A score of 4 or above was used to classify an adolescent as having a poor relationship with a parent. Therefore, an adolescent could have a good relationship with both par- ents, a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent, or a poor relationship with both parents. If a score for either parent fell between 1 and 4, this subject was eliminated’from the study.

For adolescents who had a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other, the distribution of these relationships with mothers versus fathers was determined. In the intact and divorced groups, adolescents had a good relationship with the mother in 6 of 10 and 4 of 10 families, respectively. Because of the small number of subjects, the parent with whom there was a good versus bad relationship was not included in subsequent analyses.

Table 1 presents the number of males and females in each group as well as data on adolescent age and family SES. A 2 X 3 analysis of variance (marital status: Married vs. divorced; type of relationship with parents: Good with each, good with one and poor with one, or poor with each) did not show significant differences in adolescent age as a result of marital status, F(l, 53) = 1.77, p > .l, type of relationship, F(2, 53) = 1.02, p > .l, or the interaction of the 2 variables, F(2, 53) = .68, p > .l. Two-way analyses of variance were per- formed on mother’s SES, on father’s SES, and on head of household’s SES (defined as the mother in divorced groups and as the person with the lowest Myers and Bean score [i.e., the highest SES] in the intact groups). No dif- ferences emerged for the mother’s SES; however, for both father’s SES, F( 1,49) =11.89,p< .Ol,andheadofhousehold’sSES,F(1,52)= 14.54,pC .Ol,the divorced groups had a significantly lower SES than the intact groups. Based on these differences and the conclusion that the head of household’s SES was more

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Page 5: Adolescent functioning as a consequence of recent parental divorce and the parent-adolescent relationship

DIVORCE AND ADOLESCENT FUNCTIONING 309

important than father’s SES (since fathers were absent from the hsme in the divorced families), head of household was used as a covariate in the data analyses.

As presented in Table 1, the number of adolescents of each gender in each group ranged from 4 to 6. As a result of these small sample sizes, sex was not included as a factor in the data analyses.

Independent Measures

Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). The CBQ is a list of 75 dichoto- mous items assessing the relationship between parents and adolescents (Prinz, Foster, Kent, & O’Leary, 1979). Example items include: “My mother (father) doesn’t understand me, ” “I enjoy spending time with my mother (father),” and “We almost never seem to agree.” This instrument has an internal consistency (alpha coefficients) above .88 (Prinz et al., 1979). Discriminate validity data have also been reported (Prinz et al., 1979). The short form of the CBQ, developed by Robin (1984), was used in the present study. Included in this short form were the 20 items with the highest item-total correlations and the highest Phi coefficients. This form correlates .96 with the long form (Robin, 1984).

Dependent Measures The measures that were utilized in this study were designed to assess the cog- nitive and social functioning of early adolescents in the school setting. Included were 2 cognitive’ measures (grade point average [GPA] and the Cognitive sub- scale of the Teacher’s Rating Scale of Child’s Actual Competence, TRSCAC), one pro&al measure (Social subscale of the TRSCAC), and 2 measures of problem behavior (teacher-completed Conduct Disorder and Anxiety-With- drawal factors of the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist, RBPC).

Academic Grades. Academic grades from the most recent report card were recorded for 4 subjects: English, math, science, and social studies. Letter grades were converted to a numerical measure (A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0). GPA was calculated using the 4 subjects.

Teacher’s Rating Scale of Child’s Actual Competence (TRS). The TRS is a 28-item scale that assesses the teacher’s judgement of .&the child’s actual compe- tence in 4 subscale areas: (a) Cognitive, (b) Social, (c) Physical, and (d) General Self-Worth (Hatter, 1982). Extensive reliability and validity data for each scale have been presented by Harter (1982). Only the Social and Cognitive subscales were used in the present study. The Social subscale indicates if the child is likable and popular with peers. The Cognitive subscale refers to such competen- ties as doing well at schoolwork, feeling good about schoolwork, remembering things well, and being smart.

Page 6: Adolescent functioning as a consequence of recent parental divorce and the parent-adolescent relationship

310 FOREHAND, MIDDLETON, AND LONG

Revised Behavior P&&m Checklist (RBPC). The RBPC is an $9-item teacher-completed instrument used to assess common childhood problems (Quay & Peterson, 1983). Each item is scored as 0 (no problem), 1 (mild problem), or 2 (severe problem). Six subscales have been determined: Conduct Disorder, So- cialized Aggression, Attention Problems-Immaturity, Anxiety-Withdrawal, Psychotic Behavior, and Motor Excess. The mean test-retest reliability across subscales is .67, and the mean interrater reliability across subscales is .f54 (Quay & Peterson, 1983). Only the Conduct Disorder and Anxiety-Withdrawal sub- scales were used in the present study. The Conduct Disorder subscale was used as a measure of externalizing problems whereas the Anxiety-Withdrawal sub- scale was used as a measure of internalizing problems.

Procedure Notices explaining the project instructed interested persons to phone the experi- menter for more information. When contacted, the experimenter determined if potential subjects could participate in the study (e.g., correct adolescent age). If they could participate, the experimenter explained that they would be paid for attending a 2-hour session at a local university. They were also told that the child’s social-studies teacher would be mailed several questionnaires to complete concerning the adolescent.

Each adolescent was accompanied by his or her mother to the data collection session. Upon arrival at the session, the experimenter explained the project to each pair. They were then requested to read and sign the consent forms. The experimenter then asked for the adolescent’s report card and copied down his or her grades. Finally, the mother and adolescent were asked to read and sign the release of information form enabling the social-studies teacher to complete the questionnaire.

Mothers then completed a general demographic sheet and an honorarium form. Next, the adolescent completed a packet of questionnaires, including the short form CBQ that was utilized in this study.

A packet of questionnaires was subsequently sent to the adolescent’s social- studies teacher. This packet included a letter of explanation, consent forms, a copy of the signed release of information form, a copy of the TRSCAC and the RBPC, and a stamped return envelope. The teacher was asked to complete the questionnaires/forms and mail them to the principle investigator. Some teachers did not complete all measures; therefore, the sample sizes varied across analyses.

RESULTS

Cognitive Competence The adolescents’ GPAs were used as a measure of cognitive competence. An ANCOVA, that consisted of two between subject factors (Marital Status: Intact versus Divorced; Relationship with Parents: Good-Good; Good-Poor; Poor-Poor)

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DIVORCE AND ADOLESCENT FUNCTIONING 311

and one covariate (SES), indicated that there was a significant main effect for marital status, F(l, 48) = 4.04, p < .05. Adolescents from divorced families had lower GPAs than those from intact families. There was also a significant main effect for the type of adolescent-parent relationship, F(2, 48) = 8.50, p

< .Ol. Newman-Keuls tests indicated that adolescents with a poor relationship with both parents had significantly @ < .05) lower GPAs than those with a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent and those with a good relationship with both parents. The GPAs of the latter 2 groups were not significantly different. The interaction term was not significant, F(2, 47) = .65, p > .l. The adjusted means are presented in Table 2.

An ANCOVA was also performed on the Cognitive subscale of the TRS. There was a significant main effect for the type of adolescent-parent rela- tionship, F(2, 44) = 6.56, p < .Ol. Newman-Keuls tests revealed that adoles- cents with a poor relationship with both parents were rated as having signifi- cantly (p < .05) lower cognitive competence than those with a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent and those with a good relationship with both parents. The scores of the latter 2 groups were not significantly different. The ANCOVA revealed that neither the main effect for maritalstatus,F(1,44)=3.11,p> .05,northeinteraction,F(2,44)=2.54,p > .05, was significant. The adjusted means are presented in Table 2.

Social Competence The Social subscale of the TRS was used as a measure of general social function- ing. An ANCOVA indicated that there was a significant main effect for marital

TABLE 2 Adjusted Mams for Each Group for Each Dependent Measure

Intact LliVOIWd

GG’ GP* PP3 GG’ Gp2 PP3

Cognitive Comp GPA TRS Cognitive Subscales

!hchI camp TRS Social SubscaleS

RBFC6 Anxiety-Withdrawal RBPC Conduct Disorder

3.50 3.44 3.00 3.42 3.03 2.16 3.61 3.47 3.26 3.45 3.51 2.30

3.62 3.42 3.16 3.21 3.00 2.57 1.97 1.14 3.60 1.35 2.54 5.35 1.22 2.33 4.95 1.06 2.18 11.40

lGood relationship with each parent. *Good relationship with one pennt and poor relationship with one parent. 3Poor relationship with each pamnt. 4Higher scams indicate higher ratings of cognitive competence. ‘Higher scores indicate higher ratings of social competence. 6Higher scores indicate more problems.

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312 FOREHAND, MIDDLETON, AND LONG

status, F( 1, 44), = 3.93, p C .05. Teachers rated adolescents from divorced homes as having lower social competence than adolescents from intact homes. Neither the main effect for the type of adolescent-parental relationship, F(2,44) = 2.25, p > . 1, nor the interaction, F(2, 44) = .08, p > . 1, was significant. The adjusted means are presented in Table 2.

The Anxiety-Withdrawal subscale of the RBPC was used as a measure for the presence of one type of impaired social functioning: internalized psychological problems. An ANCOVA revealed a significant main effect for the type of adoles- cent-parent relationship, F(2, 45) = 4.70, p < .Ol. Newman-Keuls tests indi- cated that teachers rated adolescents with a poor relationship with both parents as being significantly @ < .05) more anxious and withdrawn than those with a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent, and those with a good reiationship with both parents. The scores of the latter 2 groups were not significantly different. The ANCOVA revealed that neither the main effect for marital status, F(l, 45) = .80, p > .l, nor the interaction, F(2, 45) = .75, p > .l, was significant (see Table 2).

The Conduct Disorder subscale of the RBPC was used as a measure for the presence of a second type of impaired social functioning: externalized psycho- logical problems. An ANCOVA revealed a significant main effect for the type of adolescent-parent relationship, F(2, 45) = 5.11, p < .Ol . Newman-Keuls tests indicated that adolescents with a poor relationship with both parents were rated as having significantly @ < .05) more conduct problems than those with a good relationship with one parent and a poor relationship with the other parent, and those with a good relationship with both parents. The ratings of the latter 2 groups were not significantly different. The ANCOVA indicated that neither the main effect for marital status, F(l, 45) = .90, p > .l, nor the interaction, F(2, 45) = 1.34, p > . 1, was significant (see Table 2).

Planned Comparison Analyses In order to directly examine the hypothesis that as the number of stressors increases, adolescent adaptive functioning decreases, the 6 groups of subjects were divided into 4 levels based on the number of stressors experienced. The one group that did not experience a stressor consisted of adolescents from intact families who had a good relationship with both parents. Two groups experienced 1 stressor: Adolescents from intact families who had a poor relationship with one parent, and adolescents from divorced families who had a good relationship with both parents. Two groups experienced 2 stmssors: adolescents from intact fami- lies who had a poor relationship with both parents, and those from divorced families who had a poor relationship with 1 parent. Finally, the 1 group that experienced 3 stressors consisted of adolescents from divorced families who had a poor relationship with both parents.

The results (r values) of the planned comparisons (Kirk, 1968) of the 4 levels of stressors are presented in Table 3. In general, relative to 0, 1, or 2 stressors,

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DIVORCE AND ADOLESCENT FUNCTIONING 313

TABLE 3 Plam~ed Comparisons of Stress Levels

Mean Scores for Each Stress Level’

0 1 2 3

Cognitive Competence GPA 3.638 3.45a 2.99” 2.04c

TRS Cognitive Subscale 3.19s 3.51a 3.378 2.19b

!kxiai Competence TRS Social Subscale 3.61’ 3.32-b 3.08bv= 2.57~

RBPC Anxiety-Withdrawal 1.75a.b 1.25a 3.12b 5.50=

RBPC Conduct Disorder .38a 1.71= 3.738 12.OOb

‘Means with same superscripts are not significantly different @ < .05) from each other.

the presence of 3 stressors appeared to result in reduced social and cognitive competence. With the exception of GPA, no consistent differences were found among 0, 1, and 2 stressors.

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of 2 stressors, divorce and a poor adolescent-parent relationship, to adolescent functioning. Specifical- ly, it was hypothesized that divorce and a poor adolescent-parent relationship would be detrimental to adolescent functioning, and that as the number of stressors increased, adaptive functioning would decrease. A poor parent-adoles- cent relationship was associated with both internalizing and externalizing prob- lems as well as cognitive/academic functioning. In regard to social functioning, a poor parent-adolescent relationship may well signify the failure of adolescents to learn adaptive ways to interact in the home that then generalizes to the school setting. As a consequence, these adolescents are perceived by teachers as having multiple difficulties (i.e., both externalizing and internalizing problems). In regard to cognitive functioning, when a poor parent-adolescent relationship exists, the availability of parents to assist with schoolwork is likely diminished. As a consequence, these adolescents do poorly in school. Although these causal relationships are intuitively appealing to us, it is important to note that the directionality proposed above may be reversed. That is, adolescents may man- ifest behavior and academic problems at school that, consequently, may interfere with the parent-adolescent relationship.

On all measures where a significant effect was obtained for the parent- adolescent relationship, the group in which there was a poor relationship with both parents was associated with poorer functioning than either of the 2 remain-

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314 FOREHAND, MIDDLETON, AND LONG

ing groups. These results suggest that a good relationship with one parent is sufficient to prevent problems in school functioning. As will be discussed later, one good relationship may serve as a buffer for an adolescent.

Parental divorce was also associated with social and cognitive difficulties as adolescents from intact homes had higher grades and were perceived as more socially competent by teachers. When p,arents divorce, their use of effective monitoring and disciplinary procedures, as well as their positive relationship with their children, may diminish (Atkeson et al., 1982). As a consequence, the social competence and cognitive performance of the child/adolescent may deteriorate.

A primary concern of the present study was the relationship between the number of stressors and adolescent functioning. It was predicted that as the number of stressors increased, adaptive functioning would decline. This hypoth- esis was partly supported. Adolescents who experienced 1 or 2 stressors did not have significantly lower levels of functioning than adolescents who did not experience any stressors. However, the most striking finding was the difference in functioning found between adolescents who experienced 0, 1, or 2 stressors and those who experienced 3 stressors. Adolescents with 3 stressors showed lower levels of adjustment on virtuaIly all measures. It may be that the accumula- tion of divorce and a poor relationship with both parents result in more stress than an adolescent can experience and continue to function well. Alternately, it may not be the accumulation of stressors per se, but rather, the absence of a protective buffer in the form of a good relationship with at least one parent during the first year after divorce that interferes with adolescent functioning. As the present study cannot lead to the rejection of one hypothesis and the support of the other, Wure research should address this issue.

It is important to note several limitations of the present study. First, all dependent measures were completed by one source (i.e., the teacher). Data from multiple sources would provide a more stringent test of the hypotheses that were examined. Second, cause-effect relationships were not directly tested; therefore, at this point in time, any conclusions about such relationships are speculative. Hopefully, future research can examine the cause-effect question by the collec- tion of longitudinal data. Third, for the data concerning the number of stressors experienced by the adolescents, multiple comparisons were made, thus, poten- tially inflating the alpha level. Therefore, these results will need to be replicated; nevertheless, the consistency of the findings across the 5 dependent measures lends some support to their validity.

In summary, both a poor adolescent-parent relationship and divorce are asso- ciated with adolescent adjustment. In particular, adolescents experiencing 3 stmssors (a poor relationship with both parents and divorce) am functioning less well than adolescents experiencing 0; 1, or 2 of these stressors. The results point to the importance of parents maintaining a good relationship with young, adoles- cent-age children when they are undergoing a divorce.

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DIVORCE AND ADOLESCENT FUNCTIONING 315

REFERENCES

Atkeson, B.M., Forehand, R., & Rickard, K.M. (1982). The effects of divorce on children. In B.B. Lahey & A.E. Kazdin (Eds.), Advances in clinical childpsychology (Vol. 5, pp. 255-281). New York: Plenum.

Bachman, J.G. (1970). Your/t in transition: The impac? of family background and intelligence on tenth grade boys. Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1984). Being adolescent: Conflict and growth in the teenage years. New York: Basic Books.

Forehand, R., Long, N., Brody, G.H., & Fauher, R. (1986). Home predictors of young adolescents’ school behavior and academic performance. Child Developmenr, 57, 1528-1533.

Hatter, S. (1982). The Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Child Development, 53, 87-97. Hethetington, E.M., Cox, M., & Cox, R. (1978). The aftermath of divorce. In H. Stevens & M.

Mathews (Eds.), Mother/child, father/child relationships (pp. 110-155). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Hetherington, E.M., Cox, M., & Cox, R. (1985). Long term effects of divorce and remarriage on the adjustment of children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 518-530.

Kirk, R.E. (1968). Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral sciences. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Montemayor, R. (1983). Parents and adolescents in conflict: All families some of the time and some families most of the time. Journal of Early Adolescenrs, 3, 83-103.

Myers, J.K., & Bean, L.J. (1%8). A decade later: A follow-up of social class and menral illness. New York: Wiley.

Prinz, R.J., Foster, S., Kent, R.N., & O’Leary, K.D. (1979). Multivatiate assessment of conflict in distressed and nondistressed mother-adolescent dyads. Journal ofApplied Behavior Analy- sis, 12, 691-700.

Quay, H.B., & Peterson, D.R. (1983). Interim manual for rhe revised behavior problem checklist. Unpublished manuscript, University of Miami.

Rutter, M. (1978). Protective factors in children’s responses to stress and disadvantage. In M.W. Kent & J.E. Rolf (Eds.), Primary prevention ofpsychoparhology: Vol. 3. Promoting social competence and coping in children (pp. 49-74). Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.

Rutter, M. (1981). Stress, coping,‘and development: Some issues and some questions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Applied Disciplines, 22, 323-356.

Walletstein, J.S. (1985). Children of divorce: Preliminary report of a ten-year follow-up of older children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 545- 553.