university of zurich - uzh · 2011. 1. 28. · introduction parental separation is rated as one of...

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Year: 2010

Parental separation and children's behavioral/emotionalproblems: the impact of parental representations and family

conflict

Stadelmann, S; Perren, S; Groeben, M; von Klitzing, K

Stadelmann, S; Perren, S; Groeben, M; von Klitzing, K (2010). Parental separation and children'sbehavioral/emotional problems: the impact of parental representations and family conflict. Family Process,49(1):92-108.Postprint available at:http://www.zora.uzh.ch

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich.http://www.zora.uzh.ch

Originally published at:Family Process 2010, 49(1):92-108.

Stadelmann, S; Perren, S; Groeben, M; von Klitzing, K (2010). Parental separation and children'sbehavioral/emotional problems: the impact of parental representations and family conflict. Family Process,49(1):92-108.Postprint available at:http://www.zora.uzh.ch

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich.http://www.zora.uzh.ch

Originally published at:Family Process 2010, 49(1):92-108.

Parental separation and children's behavioral/emotionalproblems: the impact of parental representations and family

conflict

Abstract

In this longitudinal study, we examine whether the effect of parental separation on kindergartenchildren's behavioral/emotional problems varies according to the level of family conflict, and children'sparental representations. One hundred and eighty seven children were assessed at ages 5 and 6. Familyconflict was assessed using parents' ratings. Children's parental representations were assessed using astory-stem task. A multiinformant approach (parent, teacher, child) was employed to assess children'sbehavioral/emotional problems. Bivariate results showed that separation, family conflict, and negativeparental representations were associated with children's behavioral/emotional problems. However, inmultivariate analyses, when controlling for gender and symptoms at age 5, we found that children ofseparated parents who showed negative parental representations had a significantly greater increase inconduct problems between 5 and 6 than all other children. In terms of emotional symptoms andhyperactivity, symptoms at 5 and (for hyperactivity only) gender were the only predictors for symptoms1 year later. Our results suggest that kindergarten children's representations of parent- child relationshipsmoderate the impact of parental separation on the development of conduct problems, and underline playand narration as a possible route to access the thoughts and feelings of young children faced withparental separation.

Parental Separation and Children’s Behavioral/Emotional Problems: The Impact of ParentalRepresentations and Family Conflict

STEPHANIESTADELMANN,PH.D. nSONJAPERREN,PH.D.w

MAUREENGROEBEN,PH.D. nKAI VONKLITZING,M.D.z

To read this article’s abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article’sfull-text page on Wiley InterScience (http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp).

In this longitudinal study, we examine whether the effect of parental separation onkindergarten children’s behavioral/emotional problems varies according to the level offamily conflict, and children’s parental representations. One hundred and eighty sevenchildren were assessed at ages 5 and 6. Family conflict was assessed using parents’ratings. Children’s parental representations were assessed using a story-stem task. Amultiinformant approach (parent, teacher, child) was employed to assess children’s be-havioral/emotional problems. Bivariate results showed that separation, family conflict,and negative parental representations were associated with children’s behavioral/emo-tional problems. However, in multivariate analyses, when controlling for gender andsymptoms at age 5, we found that children of separated parents who showed negativeparental representations had a significantly greater increase in conduct problems between5 and 6 than all other children. In terms of emotional symptoms and hyperactivity,symptoms at 5 and (for hyperactivity only) gender were the only predictors for symptoms1 year later. Our results suggest that kindergarten children’s representations of parent-child relationships moderate the impact of parental separation on the development ofconduct problems, and underline play and narration as a possible route to access thethoughts and feelings of young children faced with parental separation.

Keywords: Kindergarten Age; Parental Separation; Parental Representations; FamilyConflict; Behavioral/Emotional Problems

Fam Proc 49:92–108, 2010

Family Process, Vol. 49, No. 1, 2010 r FPI, Inc.92

PROCESS

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stephanie Stadelmann, Universityof Basel, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Scaffhauserrheinweg 55, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland.E-mail: [email protected]

nDepartment of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Basel, Switzerland.wJacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, SwitzerlandzDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of

Leipzig, Germany

http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/fampmailto:[email protected]

INTRODUCTION

P arental separation is rated as one of their most stressful life events by both parentsand children (Davies & Cummings, 1994) and was found to strongly influence thequality of family relationships even two decades later (Ahrons, 2007). As family roles,relationships, and circumstances change children often tend to be depressed, anxious,angry, demanding and noncompliant, and experience a drop in school performance(Amato, 2001; Hetherington & Stanley Hagan, 1999). In this study, we examine whetherparental separation, family conflict, and children’s parental representations are pre-dictors of individual changes in children’s behavioral/emotional problems at kindergartenage and whether the adjustment of children who experienced parental separation differsaccording to the level of family conflict and to children’s representations of caregivers.

For kindergarten children, the family is a highly salient context for understandingpsychopathological development. A wealth of evidence from cross-sectional and long-itudinal studies indicates that parental separation as an important life event is asso-ciated with an increased rate of behavioral/emotional problems in children (Amato, 2001;Kelly, 2000). The greatest effects of divorce on child adjustment relate to behavioralproblems. Effects on emotional symptoms (depression/anxiety) are far more inconsistent(Amato & Keith, 1991; Hetherington & Stanley Hagan, 1999). Just as important as theevidence of mean differences is the marked individual variation in children’s socio-emotional development among those experiencing a parental separation. Some childrenare severely affected by separation, while others seem to be relatively unaffected.Moreover, the effects of separation are not necessarily adverse. Children who move froma conflictual, abusive, or negligent family situation to a more harmonious one may showdiminished problems following separation (Amato, Loomis, & Booth, 1995). This shedslight on new directions in research which seek to identify mediating and moderating riskand protective factors in the association between separation and child outcome (Amatoet al., 1995; Cummings & Davies, 2002). As a potential moderator, marital conflict re-ceives much empirical attention, and research has indicated that it is marital conflictrather than the break-up of the family that is primarily responsible for many of theproblems seen in children whose parents separate (Kelly, 2000). However, current re-search on marital conflict also proposes that the effects on children are a function ofchildren’s perceptions of conflict in relation to themselves and their families rather thansimply reflecting the frequency or characteristics of conflict (Cummings & Davies, 2002;Fincham, 1998). Thus, to understand the effects of parental separation and of maritalconflict on children, exploring psychological response processes underlying children’sdevelopment and adjustment over time is of great importance. Here, children’srepresentations of family relationships play an important role.

Children’s representations have been conceptualized in terms of working modelsin attachment theory, and schemas or scripts in social cognitive approaches(e.g., Bretherton, 1990; Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). Common to these theoreticalperspectives is the notion that children internalize important aspects of care-givingexperiences, and that these mental structures influence children’s emotional andbehavioral responses to new social encounters. The evaluation of children’s playnarratives, elicited by story stems that reflect socioemotional dilemmas, has provedto be one way of gaining access to young children’s thoughts and feelings aboutemotionally significant relationships (Bretherton & Oppenheim, 2003). Evidence hasemerged to suggest that children’s representations are affected by histories of

STADELMANN, PERREN, GROEBEN, & VON KLITZING / 93

Fam. Proc., Vol. 49, March, 2010

exposure to marital conflict (Cummings & Davies, 2002; Grych & Fincham, 1990).Shamir, Du Rocher Schudlich, and Cummings (2001) found that negative maritalconflict strategies were predictive of more negative representations of family systemsin 5–8-year-old children’s story-stem narratives. Grych, Wachsmuth Schlaefer, andKlockow (2002) showed that children who experienced extensive domestic violenceshowed significantly more negative representations of self and mothers, within moreincoherent stories, than children without such negative experiences. Research alsodocuments an association between children’s representations and their psycho-pathological development. Children who display a high level of negative representa-tions and a low level of positive/coherent representations of caregivers in their playnarratives after socioemotional dilemmas were found to show higher levels of beha-vioral/emotional problems and increased social impairment compared with otherchildren (e.g., Oppenheim, Nir, Warren, & Emde, 1997b; Shields, Ryan, & Cicchetti,2001). In a recent study on kindergarten children, Stadelmann, Perren, von Wyl, andvon Klitzing (2007) showed that negative parental representations were associatedwith the development of conduct problems, whereas positive parental representationswere associated with the development of prosocial behavior. Grych, Fincham, Jouriles,and McDonald (2000) were able to show that children’s evaluations of self-blame andthreat mediated the association between interparental conflict and their own ad-justment problems, specifically internalizing problems. Although studies have shownsignificant associations between family background, children’s cognitive-emotionalprocesses and adjustment, and support the notion that children’s perceptions of thefamily background shape the impact of family events on aspects of self-functioning,much more research is needed on the interplay between these aspects if develop-mental pathways in children are to be better understood. Specifically, there is a needfor studies to investigate young children’s cognitive-emotional processes as mediatorsor moderators of the impact of parental separation on their adjustment.

In the present study, we examine whether parental separation, family conflict, andchildren’s parental representations are predictors of individual changes in children’sbehavioral/emotional problems at kindergarten age. We hypothesized that children fromfamilies where the parents had separated would show a greater increase in behavioral/emotional problems at kindergarten age than children of nonseparated families. Fur-thermore, we hypothesized that children from families with high levels of conflict andchildren who display many negative parental representations in their play narrativeswould show a greater increase in behavioral/emotional problems at kindergarten age.Specifically, we were interested in whether family conflict and children’s negative par-ental representations moderate the impact of parental separation on behavioral/emo-tional problems in kindergarten age. In the main analyses, we control for gender asvarious studies found gender differences in children’s representations (e.g., Clyman,2003; von Klitzing, Kelsay, Emde, Robinson, & Schmitz, 2000) as well as in behavioraland emotional problems (Zahn-Waxler, Klimes Dougan, & Slattery, 2000).

METHOD

SampleOne hundred and eighty-seven children (76 girls, 111 boys) participated in the

study and were assessed at the ages of 5 and 6 years (age at first assessment:mean¼ 5.27, SD¼ 0.39; second assessment: mean¼ 6.23, SD¼ 0.35). Ninety-three

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children were recruited through their kindergarten classes in the city of Basel. Kin-dergarten classes were selected from different city districts representing various so-cioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds in the city of Basel. After the kindergartenteacher had agreed to participate, parents were informed at a parents’ meeting andgiven written information on the study. Ninety-eight families agreed to participate(participation rate 74.2%). Another 64 children were part of our longitudinal study onfamily relationships that began when the mothers of these children were pregnant(Perren et al., 2003; Perren, von Wyl, Stadelmann, Bürgin, & von Klitzing, 2006). Toincrease the number of children with behavioral/emotional problems in the clinicalrange, we included a group of 30 children who had been referred to our child psy-chiatric outpatient unit for clinical evaluation and treatment. The referrals weregenerally initiated by the children’s teachers and/or parents, and followed behavioralproblems (mostly dysregulated aggressive behavior and/or hyperactivity) or emotionalsymptoms (anxiety and/or depressive symptoms). Parents and children were askedwhether they would be willing to participate in our study, and if they agreed they wereassessed at intake into the clinic. For bivariate analyses all available data were used(N¼ 155–187). For longitudinal analyses, we only used complete datasets (N¼ 154).

The participating families were mainly Swiss-German, while 41 families (22%) hadan immigrant background. In 94 families (51%) both parents had a higher education,in 43 families (24%) at least one of the parents had a higher education; in 46 families(25%) both parents had only received a basic education (9 years or less of schooling) ora professional qualification (vocational training). In 4 cases, we only had data on themother (N¼ 2 had higher education and N¼ 2 were low educated).

Parents reported on parental separation (yes/no) and children’s age at separation.Thirty-three (18%) children (16 girls, 17 boys) experienced parental separation beforethe age of 5. Nineteen of these children (58%) lived with their mother, nine children(27%) lived with both parents (different households, shared custody), one child (3%)lived with its father, and four children (12%) lived in alternative settings such as withmother and stepfather, with the grandmother, or in a children’s home.

Families were only included into this group if parents remained separated from oneanother during the study interval. Children’s age at separation ranged from 5 monthsto 5 years of age. Behavioral/emotional problems, family conflict, and children’sparental representations were not significantly associated with children’s age atseparation. Therefore, we did not control for this variable in our main analyses.

Comparing the community and clinical sample, we found that parents of childrenfrom the clinical sample had a significantly lower educational level than those of the‘‘community’’ children ( p " .05). The two samples did not differ from each other interms of migration background or parental separation. However, children in theclinical sample showed significantly higher levels of conduct problems, hyperactivity,and emotional symptoms at both ages, and experienced significantly more conflict intheir families than children of the community sample ( p " .05). No sample differenceswere found in terms of children’s parental representations.

MeasuresParents, children, and teachers reported on children’s behavioral/emotional pro-

blems twice (age 5/6). Parents also reported on family conflict at the same ages.Children’s parental representations were assessed using a story-stem task (age 5/6).



All children were interviewed individually by a trained psychologist. Teachers andparents completed questionnaires within 4 weeks of the child interview.

Behavioral/emotional problems (age 5/6)

Parents and teachers completed the symptom scales of the Strengths andDifficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 1997). Children’s behavioral/emotionalproblems were assessed according to three scales: conduct problems (e.g., ‘‘often hastemper tantrums or a hot temper’’), hyperactivity/inattention (e.g., ‘‘restless,overactive, cannot stay still for long’’), and emotional symptoms (e.g., ‘‘many worries,often seems worried’’). Each scale consists of 5 items that are rated on a 3-point scale.Foreign-language speaking parents completed validated versions of the SDQ in theirfirst language. Internal consistency was moderate to high (parents: Cronbach’sa¼ .57# .79; teachers: Cronbach’s a¼ .73# .88).

Children’s self-report of behavioral/emotional problems was assessed by means of astandardized puppet interview. The Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI, Measelle, Ab-low, Cowan, & Cowan, 1998) is carried out by means of two identical hand puppetsthat make two opposing statements on a topic, after which the child can give his/herown statement. The interview is videotaped and subsequently scored by independentraters. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale. Our interviewers were trained by theauthors of the instrument. Interrater reliability was established first with the authorsof the instrument, and then with the raters of the research group (average ICC¼ .97).

To link child reports of behavioral/emotional problems to parent and teacher re-ports, we aggregated the original BPI subscales. ‘‘Emotional symptoms’’ encompassdepression, separation anxiety, and over-anxiety (Cronbach’s a¼ .69# .74, 20 items).‘‘Conduct problems’’ encompass oppositionality/defiance and overt aggression topeers (Cronbach’s a¼ .64# .74, 13 items). ‘‘Hyperactivity/inattention’’ includes im-pulsivity plus a single item on inattention (Cronbach’s a¼ .58# .59, 7 items). Theinterviews were conducted in Swiss German.

As recommended by Kraemer et al. (2003) we aggregated child, parent, and teacherreports. This allows the integration of information on children’s characteristics fromdifferent perspectives and contexts. Previous analyses of the cross-sectional datashowed that the aggregation of the three informants yielded reliable and valid in-formation on children’s behavioral/emotional problems (Perren et al., 2006). In thisstudy, cross-informant agreements (child, parents, and teachers) were moderateto high (intraclass correlations between .39 and .53). To combine child, parent, andteacher reports on behavioral/emotional problems, the average scores of each in-formant were first z-standardized and then averaged across informants (mean scores).

Family conflict (age 5/6)

Family conflict was assessed by parent reports using the subscale ‘‘conflict’’ of theGerman version of the Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981; Schneewind,Beckmann, & Hecht-Jackl, 1985). The subscale conflict describes the amount of angerand aggression expressed in the family (8 items, a¼ .76# .79). Items are rated on a4-point scale.

We used the linear variables to analyze bivariate associations. For multivariateanalyses, we combined longitudinal data on family conflict (age 5/6). We first calcu-lated the mean of family conflict between the two time points. We then dichotomizedthis variable using the 75th percentile as cut-off criterion: low level of family

FAMILY PROCESS96 /


conflicto75th percentile of the mean of age 5/6Ffamily conflict (N¼ 117); high levelof family conflict $ 75th percentile of the mean of age 5/6Ffamily conflict (N¼ 38).

Children’s parental representations in play narratives (age 5/6)

The MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (MSSB, Bretherton & Oppenheim, 2003),designed for children from 3 to 7 years of age, uses standardized story stems to elicitchildren’s responses across a range of socioemotional dilemmas. All stems consist of abrief narrative introduced by the experimenter, and end with a dilemma. In thisstudy, after the presentation of a warm-up story, each child was given eight storystems. Bretherton and Oppenheim (2003) outline detailed procedures for adminis-tering seven of the eight socio-emotional dilemmas (‘‘hot soup,’’ ‘‘lost Barney,’’‘‘mother’s headache,’’ ‘‘three is a crowd,’’ ‘‘lost keys,’’ ‘‘bathroom shelf,’’ ‘‘exclu-sion’’). The last stem was devised by the project group (‘‘sandcastle’’: a friend wantsthe child to join in aggravating a younger child; parents standing aside). Children’sresponses to the story stems were videotaped.

Children’s narratives were coded for negative parental representations by an in-dependent coder, using the MacArthur Narrative Coding Manual (Oppenheim, Emde, &Warren, 1997a; Robinson & Mantz-Simmons, 2003). Negative representations en-compass harsh, punitive, rejecting, and ineffectual behavior of parental figures towardchild figures. Parental representations were coded as present or absent in each story.Means were taken of the individual scores for each theme across all eight stories for eachsubject. Interrater reliability was established between the coder and the last author ofthe present study, who has been trained by the authors of the instrument (k¼ .86).

For bivariate analyses, we used the linear variables. For multivariate analyses wecombined longitudinal data on parental representations (age 5/6) and placed the childreninto two categories: None¼ child did not show negative parental representations in playnarratives (N¼ 101). At least once¼ child showed negative parental representations atage 5 and/or at age 6 (N¼ 53). We decided to use this procedure because of distributionproperties (highly skewed distribution of the variable at both ages).

RESULTS

First, we report descriptive results and bivariate associations between study vari-ables. Second, we present results on multivariate analyses.

Descriptive Results and Bivariate Associations Between StudyVariablesBivariate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations

To analyze associations between family conflict, parental representations, and be-havioral/emotional problems, we computed Pearson correlations coefficients (Table 1).Family conflict and children’s parental representations in play narratives were notsignificantly associated with each other, but both aspects showed significant correla-tions with behavioral/emotional problems. Family conflict was positively associatedwith conduct problems and emotional symptoms (age 5, 6, 5 with 6, 6 with 5) and withhyperactivity (age 5, 5 with 6). Negative parental representations were positivelyassociated with conduct problems (age 5, 6, 5 with 6) and with hyperactivity (age 6).No significant associations were found between parental representations andemotional symptoms. Finally, behavioral/emotional problems showed significantlypositive correlations with each other (age 5, 6, 5 with 6, 6 with 5).



TABLE1

Bivariate

Cross-section

alandLon

gitudinalAssociation

sbetw

eenSym

ptoms,

FamilyCon

flict,andNeg

ative

ParentalRep

resentation

s

12

34

56

78

910

Sym

ptomsage5

1.Con

duct

p.

F2.Hyperactivity

.674

nn

F3.Emotional

s..421

nn

.491

nn

FSym

ptomsage6

4.Con

duct

p.

.642

nn

.411

nn

.227

nn

F5.Hyperactivity

.489

nn

.744

nn

.328

nn

.504

nn

F6.Emotional

s..283

nn

.362

nn

.622

nn

.261

nn

.332

nn

FFamilyconflict

7.Age5

.277

nn

.238

nn

.270

nn

.196

nn

.173

n.189

nF

8.Age6

.198

n.077

.250

nn

.282

nn

.118

.241

nn

.643

nn

FNeg

ative

parental

representation

9.Age5

.196

n.124

#.017

.298

nn

.050

#.015

.078

.069

F10.Age6

.026

.058

#.071

.153

n.153

nn

#.084

.055

#.028

.353

nn

F

Note.

nnpo.01.

npo.05(P

earson

’scorrelation

coefficien

t,tw

o-tailed

).

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Stability

To analyze stability of family conflict, parental representations, and behavioral/emotional problems over 1 year, we computed Pearson correlations coefficients(Table 1). Family conflict showed high stability between age 5 and 6. Negativeparental representations showed moderate stability between 5 and 6. Behavioral/emotional problems were also highly stable between 5 and 6.

Frequency of behavioral/emotional problems

Based on the SDQ norms (http://www.sdqinfo.com; Goodman, 1997), at the age of 5,36% of children (N¼ 57) of the community sample (77% [N¼ 23] of the clinical sample)were in the clinical range on at least one of the symptom scales, according to parent and/or teacher reports. In detail, 21% of children (N¼ 33) of the community sample (20%[N¼ 6] of the clinical sample) had behavioral problems only (i.e., conduct problems and/or hyperactivity/inattention); 9% (N¼ 14) of the community sample (17% [N¼ 5] of theclinical sample) had emotional symptoms only; and 6% (N¼ 10) of the community sample(40% [N¼ 12] of the clinical sample) had both behavioral and emotional problems.

Group differences of separated and nonseparated families

To analyze group differences between separated and nonseparated families, wecomputed univariate variance analyses (see Table 2). Children who experiencedparental separation showed significantly more emotional symptoms and, with a trendtoward significance, more conduct problems at age 6 compared with childrenof nonseparated families. No group differences were found concerning behavioral/emotional problems at the age of 5. Furthermore, children of separated familiesshowed a significantly higher level of negative parental representations in their playnarratives at age 5, but no group differences were found concerning parental re-presentations at the age of 6. In addition, parents of separated families reported sig-nificantly more family conflict compared with parents of nonseparated families when

TABLE2Group Differences Nonseparation vs. Separation

Nonseparated Separated

F pM SD M SD

Symptoms age 5Conduct problems # 0.04 .69 .14 .80 1.829 .178Hyperactivity # 0.01 .72 .13 .95 0.889 .347Emotional symptoms # 0.01 .70 .16 .93 1.325 .251

Symptoms age 6Conduct problems # 0.04 .66 .23 .82 3.705 .056Hyperactivity # 0.04 .68 .14 .79 1.621 .205Emotional symptoms # 0.04 .68 .24 .78 4.128 .044

Family conflictAge 5 2.15 .47 2.36 .55 5.337 .022Age 6 2.14 .46 2.17 .45 0.112 .738

Negative parental representationsAge 5 0.03 .08 .07 .18 5.032 .026Age 6 0.04 .08 .05 .11 0.463 .497



http://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.comhttp://www.sdqinfo.com

children were 5 years old. Again, no group differences were found concerning familyconflict at the age of 6.

Gender differences

To analyze gender differences, we calculated univariate variance analyses. At bothages boys showed higher levels of conduct problems (age 5: girls: M¼ # .23, SD¼ .59,boys: M¼ .14, SD¼ .75; F¼ 12.37, p¼ .001; age 6: girls: M¼ # .24, SD¼ .57, boys:M¼ .18, SD¼ .75; F¼ 16.58, p¼ .000) and of hyperactivity than girls (age 5: girls:M¼ # .16, SD¼ .73, boys: M¼ .14, SD¼ .77; F¼ 6.68, p¼ .011; age 6: girls: M¼ # .23,SD¼ .58, boys: M¼ .17, SD¼ .74; F¼ 15.14, p¼ .000). Girls and boys did not differfrom each other in terms of emotional symptoms. In addition, boys presentedsignificantly more negative parental representations in their play narratives thangirls at the age of 6 (girls: M¼ .02, SD¼ .05, boys: M¼ .06, SD¼ .10; F¼ 10.47,p¼ .001). At the age of 5 this difference only showed a trend toward significance (girls:M¼ .02, SD¼ .06, boys: M¼ .05, SD¼ .12; F¼ 3.03, p¼ .083). No gender differenceswere found regarding family conflict.

Multivariate Analyseswith Interaction EffectsTo analyze the predictive value of parental separation, family conflict, and negative

parental representations on changes of behavioral/emotional problems betweenthe age of 5 and 6, and to test whether family conflict and negative parentalrepresentations have an impact on the strength of the effect of separation on beha-vioral/emotional problems, we computed General Linear Models with interactioneffects (see Table 3). As explained in the methods, we categorized family conflict andnegative parental representations (low vs. high levels of family conflict; no negativeparental representations vs. child shows negative representations at least at one timepoint). Parental separation, family conflict, negative parental representations as maineffects, and the interaction effects between parental separation and family conflict andbetween parental separation and negative parental representations were all analyzed aspredictors of changes in behavioral/emotional problems between the ages of 5 and 6.Gender and behavioral/emotional problems at age 5 were included as control variables.

TABLE3Multivariate Associations with Interaction Effects (N¼ 154)

Predictors

Symptoms age 6

Conductproblems Hyperactivity

Emotionalsymptoms

F p F p F p

Symptoms age 5 74.013 .000 166.171 .000 70.059 .000Gender 4.087 .045 10.772 .001 0.109 .742Family conflict (F) 5.302 .023 0.422 .517 0.933 .336Negative parental representation. (N) 4.668 .032 0.084 .772 0.284 .595Parental separation (PS) 6.589 .011 1.967 .163 2.107 .149PS % F 0.030 .864 0.344 .559 0.067 .796PS % N 3.927 .049 0.007 .934 0.542 .463

Note: Conduct problems: R2¼ .49; hyperactivity: R2¼ .59; emotional symptoms: R2¼ .41.

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Concerning conduct problems, we found that the main effects of symptoms at age 5,gender (girls: M¼ # .20, SD¼ .58, boys: M¼ .17, SD¼ .75), parental separation(nonseparated: M¼ # .04, SD¼ .65, separated: M¼ .24, SD¼ .84), family conflict (lowlevel: M¼ # .12, SD¼ .60, high level: M¼ .39, SD¼ .86), and negative parental re-presentations (none: M¼ # .06, SD¼ .66; at least once: M¼ .14, SD¼ .76), were sig-nificant predictors of symptoms at the age of 6. In addition, we found a significantinteraction effect between separation and negative parental representations in pre-dicting conduct problems. As can be seen in Figure 1, children from families where theparents had separated who showed negative parental representations in their nar-ratives also showed a significantly higher increase in conduct problems at the age of 6compared with children of separated families without negative representations, andcompared with children of nonseparated families.

Concerning hyperactivity, corresponding symptoms at the age of 5 and gender weresignificant predictors of symptoms at the age of 6. None of the other variables werefound to be significant predictors.

Concerning emotional symptoms at the age of 6, symptoms at the age of 5 was theonly predictor of symptoms 1 year later.

DISCUSSION

Our hypothesis that parental separation, family conflict, and children’s negativeparental representations would predict a greater increase in behavioral/emotionalproblems at kindergarten age was partially supported. Our longitudinal study showedthat all three of these aspects were risk factors for an increase in conduct problemsduring the kindergarten years. The effect of parental separation was particularlystrong if children also had negative parental representations.

Conduct ProblemsIn support of our hypothesis, multivariate analyses showed that parental separation

predicted higher levels of conduct problems of children at the age of 6, and explained anincrease in conduct problems between 5 and 6. We did not find that this effect varied

–0.2

–0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

age 5 age 6

z-sc

ores

: con

duct

pro

blem

s

non-separated /no negative represent.(N=81)

non-separated /negative represent.(N=43)

separated /no negative represent.(N=20)

separated /negative represent.(N=10)

FIGURE1. Conduct problems (age 5 and age 6) predicted by parental separation and negativeparental representations (age 5/6).



according to the level of family conflict. This is partly in line with Morrison and Coiro(1999) and Cheng, Dunn, O’Connor, Golding, and Kingdom (2006), who showed thatparental separation predicted an increase in behavioral/emotional problems in 4–9-year-old children over and above the effect of preseparation parental quarrels. Nonetheless,like Morrison and Coiro (1999), we found that family conflict is an additional significantpredictor of an increase in conduct problems at kindergarten age.

In support of our hypothesis, negative representations (at age 5 and/or 6) turned out tobe a further additional predictor of an increase in conduct problems between 5 and 6.Moreover, children’s representations also had an impact on the strength of the associationbetween separation and conduct problems. Those children of separated parents who de-scribed the behavior of parental figures toward child figures in their play narratives asharsh, punitive, rejecting, or ineffectual had a significantly higher increase in conductproblems between the ages of 5 and 6 than did other children, while the absence of ne-gative parental representations seems to be protective for children’s development after theexperience of their parents’ separation. This result suggests that the quality of internalrepresentations of relationships in the face of parental separation has a moderationalimpact on the development of conduct problems at an early state of development. Ac-cording to social-cognitive models, children internalize important aspects of care-givingexperiences, which guide their behavior in new social situations (Bretherton, 1990;Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). Thus, children’s accounts of parental behavior might be ex-pected to correspond to their experiences within their own families (e.g., Grych et al., 2002;Shamir et al., 2001). Generally, children need parents who are warm, supportive, andresponsive to their needs, who exert structured positive discipline (Eisenberg & Fabes,1998), and who manage conflict well, with the ability to build an interparental consensusto coparent their children effectively, not allowing children to get caught up in the par-ental acrimony (Ahrons, 2007; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Hetherington & Stanley Hagan,1999). Such positive parenting might also have a positive impact on children’s internalrepresentations of social conflict and on their behavioral adjustment following separation.In our study, children’s parental representations were significantly associated with par-ental separation but not with parents’ ratings of the amount or quality of family conflict.This result is not consistent with the findings of the studies mentioned above. On the onehand, family conflict, assessed by a questionnaire, may be a relatively imperfect measureof actual family relationships and parents’ reports on family conflict are subject to apossible ‘‘social desirability’’ effect and might not reflect actual family life. On the otherhand, however, the result suggests that children’s representations are not simply a mirrorof their actual family life. They also reflect the children’s own way of comprehending andcoping with social situations. As such, they represent the at least partially independentemotional and cognitive processes of the child, and are markedly affected by the child’sgender (Oppenheim et al., 1997b). Representations might also be an expression of chil-dren’s competence in regulating their emotions when confronted with a stressful stimulus(Clyman, 2003). Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that the as-if nature of playoffers the child an opportunity to test behaviors and to act out aggressive impulses andwishes in a safe space (Marans, Dahl, Marans, & Cohen, 1993).

Hyperactivity/InattentionNone of our analyses pointed to separation as a risk factor for hyperactivity, and only

in bivariate analyses did we find significant positive associations with family conflict and

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negative parental representations. In multivariate analyses, gender and hyperactivity atage 5 were the only predictors for hyperactivity 1 year later. This might indicate on theimportance of neurobiological explanations for hyperactivity disorder (Nigg & Casey,2005). On the other hand, the results are not in line with studies of family context andhyperactivity, which show that parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivitydisorder experience higher levels of stress, are more likely to display negative behaviortoward their children (DuPaul, McGoey, Eckert, & VanBrakle, 2001), and more oftenseparate (Barkley, 1990) than parents of control children. Despite the differentassociations of conduct problems and hyperactivity in our study, it is important torecognize that there is a significant overlap between conduct problems and hyperactivitysymptoms. It might therefore be that the associations of separation, negative parentalrepresentations, and family conflict with behavioral problems such as conduct problemsand hyperactivity are not symptom specific.

Emotional SymptomsIn bivariate analyses, we found that children of separated parents and with high

levels of conflict in their families showed more emotional symptoms than other chil-dren. But again, in multivariate analyses emotional symptoms at the age of 5 were theonly predictor of symptoms 1 year later. Developmental research has indeed identifiedthat cognitive-emotional and family environment risk factors have an impact on theorigin and development of emotional symptoms in children (Zahn-Waxler et al., 2000;Zalsman, Brent, & Weersing, 2006). Nevertheless, the results are far more incon-sistent compared with those of behavioral problems (Amato & Keith, 1991; Hether-ington & Stanley Hagan, 1999; Oppenheim et al., 1997b; von Klitzing et al., 2000). Oneexplanation for the observation that none of the family environment factors wererelevant for emotional symptoms in our study is that emotional symptoms were lessfrequent and less variable compared with conduct problems. This might also reflectthe problem that emotional symptoms are harder to detect than behavioral problemsin young children. Moreover, despite ‘‘the hope that narrative methods will go beyondthe external manifestation of children’s problems and provide an entrée to theinternal experience of young children’’ (Oppenheim et al., 1997b, p. 291), it turned outto be difficult to detect narrative characteristics of emotional symptoms. In our study,children with emotional symptoms might have been less likely to use parental figuresin their play narratives. Instead, performance aspects in narratives could be of specialimportance in research on emotional symptoms. In order to regulate negative feelingswhen confronted with conflict themes in story stems, children with depressive oranxiety symptoms might modify or avoid talking about certain things (Clyman, 2003;Stadelmann, 2006).

Methodological Limitations and StrengthsIn this paper, we are interested in the impact of parental separation as an im-

portant life event on children’s socioemotional development. Parental separation isjust one step in a series of family transitions that affect family relationships andchildren’s adjustment. Children’s family and life situations change during and afterseparation. The interactions between various individual, family, and extra-familialrisk and protective factors that undermine or promote the well-being of children,produce diverse developmental trajectories (Hetherington & Stanley Hagan, 1999).



We focused on two possible risk factorsFfamily conflict and children’s parentalrepresentations in the context of socioemotional dilemmasFand analyzed whetherthey have an impact on the strength of the association between separation and chil-dren’s adjustment. Because of our sample size, we did not take into account furtherdetails of the family or living situation (e.g., new partner, quantity/quality of contactof both parents after separation). Another limitation of this study concerns the as-sessment of family conflict. We did not control which family system parents focused onwhen answering the questionnaire. In separated families, this could have been thefamily system with a new partner.

We also found higher levels of negative representations and family conflict in se-parated families (compared with nonseparated families) only at the age of 5 but not atthe age of 6. Even though this was an unexpected finding the result indicates that aftera parental separation family relationships do not necessarily remain highly conflictualbut can also ease and move toward a more harmonious situation (Amato et al., 1995).

On the other hand, our results showed significant differences in behavioral/emo-tional problems between separated and nonseparated families at the age of 6 but notat the age of 5 (even though there was stability in behavioral/emotional problemsacross ages). We might speculate whether this is an indication of a delayed effect,which has been frequently demonstrated in the divorce literature (e.g., Kelly, 2000).

So far, the majority of studies on children’s narratives have been conducted incommunity samples (Robinson, 2007). In this study, we included a subsample of 30children who had been referred to our outpatient department by their parents and/orteachers. Children of this sample were assessed in our research department whereaschildren of the community sample were assessed in their kindergarten or at home.There were substantially more children with clinically relevant behavioral/emotionalproblems in the clinical subsample and families in this sample experienced a higherlevel of conflict. In contrast, negative parental representations did not differ in thereferred and the nonreferred sample. We speculate that in the clinical setting, chil-dren might be more inhibited. To assess play narratives accurately in clinical set-tingsFin comparison with research settings such as the kindergartenFchildrenmight need more emotional support in order to feel comfortable and free to narrate.On the other hand, the result might also be due to the large number of children in thenonreferred sample (36%) who also exhibited clinically relevant behavioral/emotionalproblems. Because of the different recruitment schemes of the samples we saw theneed to control for study affiliation, but found that results remained the same.

Separation, family conflict, and children’s parental representations are not the onlyinfluences on children’s behavioral/emotional problems in kindergarten age. It is clearthat behavioral/emotional problems are multidetermined and that a comprehensiveaccount will include numerous biological as well as other socializing factors, such asparental psychopathology and parents’ educational level. In our study, we also foundthat behavioral/emotional problems at the age of 5 were always the strongestpredictors for behavioral/emotional problems in the following year. One of thesedeterminating factors, for which we also controlled, was the children’s gender. At bothages, boys showed more conduct problems and hyperactivity. Male gender was evenable to account for an increase in hyperactivity and conduct problems betweenthe ages of 5 and 6. Metaanalytic research has found modest evidence that boys aremore strongly affected by their parents’ separation than girls (Amato, 2001).However, in longitudinal studies girls were found to be affected at an older age than

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boys (e.g., Oldehinkel, Ormel, Veenstra, De Winter, & Verhulst, 2008). It would havebeen important to investigate gender as a moderator in this study. However, oursample size was too small to include another interaction term.

Clinical ImplicationsSystematic insights into children’s ways of dealing with relevant themes and con-

flict in their play narratives, and the finding that the quality of caregiver re-presentations contributed to a differential outcome in children of separated parents,can inform our psychotherapeutic techniques. Most families who require assistance innegotiating the divorce process respond to low-intensity interventions. The programsgenerally offer psychoeducation for parents and focus on specific communication,conflict-resolution, and parenting skills. Some of these programs have been shown tobe effective on children’s adjustment as well as on the quality of parent-child re-lationships (e.g., Parent Management Training [PMT], Patterson, DeGarmo, & For-gatch, 2004; New Beginnings Program [NBP], Wolchik et al., 2000). However,evidence provided in this study underlines to practitioners the relevance of an earlytherapeutic engagement based on the complete family system, and the need to con-sider young children in their family therapeutic enactments, and to support the ca-pacity of these young children to deal with family conflict in a constructive way. Grych(2005) notes that even though parents bear primary responsibility for managingpostdivorce conflict, programs for children may be useful particularly if they helpchildren to develop skills for coping with situations where they may be caught up inparental patterns of negative attribution and interparental conflict. Children’s pro-grams are not as widespread as parent-focused programs, and focus mostly on school-age children. Sometimes they form part of a program that includes a group for parents(e.g., Wolchik et al., 2000), or may be school-based groups (e.g., Pedro-Carroll, 1997).Surprisingly, the dual-component programs have demonstrated little positive effectbeyond that gained when only parents participate in the group (Wolchik et al., 2000).In contrast, the school-based Children of Divorce Intervention Program demonstratedboth short- and long-term effects on children’s adjustment (Pedro-Carroll, 1997).Thus, a definite conclusion about the efficacy of child-oriented prevention programscannot yet be drawn. Another example of a treatment which focuses on parents andchildren is the Integrative Family Therapy for Disputes involving Child Custody andVisitation (IFT-DCCV). This family-based approach provides intense therapy for high-conflict families who do not respond to low-intensity treatments, incorporating mul-tiple therapy session formats, with a solution-oriented focus and drawing upon a widerange of intervention techniques such as psychoeducation, mediation, cognitive, andnarrative techniques (Lebow & Rekart, 2007). The specific intervention strategies forchildren in this program are tailored to the children’s age. For young children theauthors recommend the use of stories that enable feelings to be processed in fantasy aslaunching points for dialogue. Overall, our study underlines the relevance of ap-proaches that integrate play and narration to promote mental health in young chil-dren who have experienced a parental separation.

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