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Parental divorce and decreased optimism about success of marriage: Perceptions of unique or universal vulnerability?
Abstract
This study attempted to explore further to decreased optimism of college-aged children of divorce regarding their success in marriage by first examining both their vulnerability to divorce and the specific perceptions of marriage in comparison to college-aged children from intact families. To distinguish between the role of parental divorce and the amount of conflict between parents, regardless of marital status, the parents' relationship was also examined. When comparing the parental divorced respondents (PD) with the respondents from intact families (IF), analyses showed that those in the PD group were significantly more vulnerable to and worried about divorce. When asked to rate their changes of divorcing in comparison to other college students and college-aged children of divorce, however, the PD respondents maintained as strong an illusion of invulnerability as their IF counterparts; both groups believed that they were less vulnerable to divorce than either of the targets. The PD group was more likely to believe that people change over time and marriages cannot always accommodate these changes, thus it is unrealistic to expect marriages to last a lifetime. The IF respondents were more apt to agree that people's marriages resemble their parents' and that marriages break up because people do not try hard enough to save them. College-aged children from intact homes were also more likely to stress the importance of developing a close relationship with the partner's family and to see themselves forming this bond. When comparing responses by the amount of parental conflict, the high conflict respondents were more vulnerable to divorce than the low conflict, yet both perceived themselves as less likely to divorce than other students or children of divorce. High parental conflict respondents, however, also indicated they were less likely to marry, perhaps because they too endorsed the notion that marriages cannot last a lifetime. Further exploratory analyses seemed to indicate that the parental relationship and the dissolution of a marriage may affect the perceived vulnerability conjointly; parental conflict may be sufficient to produce this effect, but in its absence, parental divorce may be necessary.
Subject Area
Social psychology|Individual & family studies|Sociology
Recommended Citation
Franklin, Kathryn Mary, "Parental divorce and decreased optimism about success of marriage: Perceptions of unique or universal vulnerability?" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9120879.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9120879