Research Proposal (final)

Running Head: BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH DIVORCED PARENTS 1

Effects of Divorced Fathers on Behavioral Problems in Adolescence

Rebecca Sheppard

The College at Brockport, State University of New York

BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH DIVORCED PARENTS 2

Abstract

With divorce being a serious issue in the United States, many times it can have a large impact on

the family as a whole, in particular the separated parent’s offspring adolescent. During

adolescence, a critical development process occurs that shapes who their future self will be. Past

research has examined the negative effects divorce plays on adolescent whose parents became

separated. Research has also found that fathers are more likely than mothers to disengage from

their offspring in response to marital conflict. Because of this, the current study will examine in

particular, the effects on the adolescent who lives with their divorced father. The purpose of this

study is to examine the father- adolescent relationship, and what internalizing and externalizing

behavioral problems the adolescent takes on when living full custody with their divorced father.

The study will look at 60 families, including the divorced father and their offspring adolescent,

in the Finger Lakes region. We will examine the father- adolescent relationship and the

adolescents internalizing and externalizing behavioral symptoms to see if there is a relationship

between the two. We will compare the adolescents who have a negative father-adolescent

relationship to those who have a positive father- adolescent relationship and see how that

corresponds to the adolescent’s behavioral problems. We expect to see that adolescents who have

a positive relationship with their father will have less internalizing and externalizing behavioral

problems, compared to those that have a negative relationship with their father.


Effects of Divorced Fathers on Behavioral Problems in Adolescence

Divorce is a serious issue in the United States, with forty to fifty percent of married

couples getting divorced in the United States. (Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2002.) Many times

when an adolescent offspring of the divorced couple is involved during the divorce, behavioral

problems end up arising due to the chaotic pull between the split of the mother and father.

Adolescence is a critical period of development, where any added stress can be detrimental to the

teen, sense the adolescent is still maturing. Often after the separation of the parents, courts

determine the best living situation is with the mother. Votruba and Braver (2014) stated in their

study “By the last quarter of the 19th century, American culture started to shift away from

regarding a child as the property of the father. Instead it moved toward believing that custody

should be awarded based on the child’s interests. At that time, people began to believe that most

children, especially if they were young, were better off in the care of their mothers.” With this in

mind, many research studies have examined the effects of the divorce on the adolescent when the

mother has custody and the mother–child relationship. Little research has been done studying

what effects divorce has on the offspring adolescent when the father has custody, and the father-

child relationship.

Weaver and Schofield (2014) found that children from divorced families had

significantly more behavioral problems than peers from intact families, and these problems were

evident immediately after the separation and later on, in early and middle adolescence. This

study focused on the mother and teacher’s assessments of the child’s behavior. An important

limitation noted was the studies lack of information about the father’s behavior following the

parent’s separation.


Evidence suggests the fathers parenting quality has a distinct and important role in early

cognitive development and regulatory skills, even after maternal parenting (parenting of the

mother) is taken into account. (Cabrera, Shannon, & TamisLeMonda, 2007) Another study found

that over half of the mothers were significantly less available and less responsive to their

children in the post-divorce years than during the failing marriage. (Wallerstein & Lewis, 2013)

Again focusing more on the mother- child relationship, the study found that many of the

adolescents engaged in delinquent activities and truancy, which subsided when the mother

resumed supervision and stabilized family life. Many of the mothers turned their priority from

parenting to rebuilding intimate relationships along with intensive training to achieve economic

independence. Most of the mothers failed to recover and were then cared for by their adolescent

children, who themselves were in desperate need of parenting and support. The current study will

examine how these conditions would differ when the adolescent lives full custody with their

father following divorce, and how that effects the adolescent’s internalizing and externalizing

behaviors along with the quality of the father- adolescent relationship. It is important to focus

specifically on the father- adolescent relationship because, Christensen and Heavey (1990) found

that fathers are more likely than mothers to withdraw and disengage from their children in

response to marital conflict.

Looking at the father- adolescent relationship is meaningful because the parent can be

influential on their offspring’s life. Positive parenting, including being sensitive and responsive

to the child’s needs, protects children from the negative fallout associated with parental divorce

because it increases the child’s sense of stability and security in the parent- child relationship and

can strengthen the child’s coping abilities when faced with the challenges of parental separation.

(Weaver &Schofield, 2014) Kochanska and colleagues (2008) found that positive, mutually


responsive father- child interactions between 7 and 24 months across multiple naturalistic

contexts were positively linked with child self- regulation at 52 months.

Fathers play an extremely important role in the development of their children. With this

being said, the quality of adolescents relationships with their parents plays a critical role in the

development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. (Fanti, Henrich, Brookmeyer, &

Kuperminc, 2008) Parents that are engaged, attuned to the child’s needs, emotionally supportive,

cognitively stimulating, and who foster their child’s development in a warm manner promote the

self- regulated thought and behavior that define executive functioning, in addition to providing a

positive and safe environment for children to practice and master these skills (Carlson, 2009).

The present investigation will look at the relationship between the parent- adolescent

relationship, and the adolescent’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Specifically, with

post-divorce fathers that have full custody of their offspring adolescent.

We will address this issue by using the Inventory of Parent Attachment (Armsden &

Greenberg, 1987; Raja, McGee, & Stanton, 1992) to measure the parent- adolescent relationship.

The parent- adolescent relationship will be determined by looking at the quality of

communication, trust, and alienation within the adolescents and their father’s relationship. We

will use the Youth Self Report (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) to measure the adolescents

internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Internalizing symptoms including withdrawal, somatic

complaints, and anxiety- depression, externalizing symptoms including aggressive behaviors and

delinquent behaviors. We will put the adolescents who have a good relationship with their father

in one group, and the adolescents who do not have a good relationship with their father in

another group. We will then look at what behavioral problems exist, specifically internalizing

and externalizing, and whether they are present within the two groups. We will accomplish this


by comparing the adolescents who have a better relationship with their father to those that do

not, and how that relates to their externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. We

hypothesize that adolescents that have a good relationship with their father will create less of an

impact from the negative consequences of divorce, and would therefore create lower symptoms

of internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Method

Participants

The study will use a sample of 60 families, including the father and their offspring

adolescents in New York, in the Finger Lakes area. We expect the adolescents to range between

14- 21 years old, with an equal percentage of female and male adolescents. All of the adolescents

will be in the sole custody with their fathers after the divorce being within the last five years. The

adolescents will be affiliated with schools in the Finger Lakes area, because of this we expect the

families to be in general a part of a well- educated, middle class, largely White urban group. We

expect the father’s average age to be between 30- 50.

Procedure

Convenience sampling will be used to select participants. Flyers and ads will be posted

on social networks and posted around the Finger Lakes Schools. The schools will consist of high

schools and colleges. Individuals who express interest will be mailed a packet containing a

consent form for the father and an assent form for the adolescent, if under the age of 18. Families

that are interested in the study will be asked to call the research office, and will be recruited by a

research staff member who will explain the study procedures and answer any questions about the

study. The participants will also become aware of reimbursement for participating in the study,


$30 each, $60 per family. A between subjects nonexperimental research design will be used to

determine the relationship between the adolescent and father’s relationship and the adolescents

internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Trained research assistants will set up times to go to

the participant’s house and administer the Inventory of Parent Attachment and the Youth Self-

Report. The adolescents will complete a short version (12 items) of the Inventory of Parent

Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987; Raja, McGee, & Stanton, 1992) that measures the

quality of communication, trust, and alienation in the parent–adolescent relationship while in

their natural home environment. An assessment of the adolescent’s behavioral symptoms will be

collected by both the adolescent and father completing the Youth Self Report (Achenbach &

Rescorla, 2001) that covers 112 items of the adolescent’s symptoms and problematic behaviors

displayed during the previous 6 months. We will combine these items into separate measures of

internalizing symptoms (withdrawal, somatic complaints, and anxiety-depression) and

externalizing symptoms (aggressive behaviors, delinquent behaviors).

Kim-Spoon and Longo (2012) used both the Inventory of Parent Attachment and the

Youth Self Report in their research study to examine if adolescents who are less religious than

their parents are at risk for externalizing and internalizing symptoms. They found statistically

significant results, indicating the measures are valid and reliable.

To induce the naturalness of the questionnaire, it will be completed at home and the

research assistant will not be present when the adolescent is filling it out. Sensitive parenting will

be measured by evaluating the scores on The Inventory of Parent Attachment. The adolescent’s

behavioral problems will be measured by evaluating the adolescent and father’s scores on the

Youth Self Report (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). The scores will be obtained and then

analyzed. A between subjects nonexperimental research strategy will be used to determine if


there is a relationship between the parent- adolescent relationship following post-divorce, and the

adolescent’s behavior. Specifically looking at the internalizing and externalizing symptoms of

the adolescent. Because these groups have pre-existing characteristics, it is more specifically a

differential research design.

Results/ Discussion

The Inventory of Parent attachment questionnaire will be calculated by averaging the

three subscale scores with the alienation subscale reverse-coded. Higher scores for the composite

will indicate a better parent– adolescent relationship. The Youth Self Report will generate a

total-problems score as well as scores on nine subscales: withdrawn, somatic complaints,

anxious/depressed symptoms, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior. The addition of the

delinquent behavior and aggressive behavior subscales yields an externalizing score, whereas the

addition of the withdrawn, somatic complaints, and anxious/depressed subscales yields an

internalizing score. The scores will be averaged together; the higher the scores indicating the

worst internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems the adolescent has. An independent

measures T- test will be used to examine the statistical significance of the mean differences

between the groups of scores. In this case, the two groups of scores are the parent- adolescent

relationship, and the adolescent’s behavior. It will then be determined if there is a relationship

between the two scores.

It is predicted that the results will show a strong negative correlation, meaning that high

scores on The Inventory of Parent Attachment are expected to be strongly associated with lower

scores on the Youth Self Report. The two variables should change in opposite directions.

Adolescents with minimal externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems should be related

to a positive parent- adolescent relationship. This outcome would support the hypothesis that


having a negative parent- adolescent relationship can be related to the adolescent’s behavioral

problems. This finding would be consistent with Weaver and Schofield (2014) where they found

children from divorced families had significantly more behavioral problems compared to those

with non- divorced families, which were importantly evident in early and middle adolescence.

The significance of finding this outcome would show that there is some type of relationship

between what behavior problems are present during a critical time of development (adolescence),

and the post- divorce father’s relationship with their adolescent. It would indicate that future

research needs to be done to determine why this relationship exists, and what we can do to

minimize the possible negative outcomes on the adolescent’s behavior.

It is also possible that the relationship is positive, meaning the two variables change in

the same direction. This would imply that adolescents who have a positive parent- adolescent

relationship would be related to more internalizing/ externalizing behavioral problems. This

outcome would not be consistent with Carlson (2009) study which found that parents who are

engaged, attuned to the child’s needs, emotionally supportive, cognitively stimulating, and who

foster their child’s development in a warm manner, promote the self- regulated thought and

behavior that define executive functioning. And also, provide a positive and safe environment for

children to practice and master these skills. Another possible outcome is finding no correlation

between the two variables, meaning the two variables don’t have any significant relationship

between each other. This would be inconsistent with Fanti, Henrich, Brookmeyer, and

Kuperminc (2008) findings which state the quality of adolescent’s relationships with their

parents plays a critical role in the development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. So,

there must be some type of relationship between the two scores. Both these possible outcomes do

not support the hypothesis. One potential extraneous variable that could be responsible for the


unexpected results is the method by which participants would be obtained to be in the study.

Because convenience sampling would be used, it is more likely to result in a biased, non-

representative sample. Another possible limitation could be the fact that the relations between

parent- adolescent relationship and adolescent adjustment would be based solely upon the

adolescent reports, which might be artificially inflated due to method variance. Also, since only

questionnaires would be used as a mean of determining behavior problems and parent-

adolescent relationships, future studies could benefit by integrating interviews and observations

as another way to collect a more accurate result. Future studies could also benefit by following

the families over time to determine what factors influence the adolescent’s behavior symptoms.

Future research could examine what causes the adolescents behavioral problems to

increase when living with their divorced father. What specific qualities are in the divorced father

that may be causing a negative parent- adolescent relationship? Or, the specific qualities in the

adolescent. What are the other possible environmental factors in the household that may be

accounting for a negative parent- adolescent relationship following the divorce? Once we find

that there is some kind of relationship between the adolescent’s behavioral problems and the

relationship they have with their divorced father while living full custody with them, we can then

answer the question as to why this might occur. This would be a critical finding because we can

create solutions to this problem once we know why.


References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA SchoolAge Forms & Profiles.

Burlington, VT: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.

Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment:

Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427–454. doi:10.1007/BF02202939

Cabrera, N. J., Shannon, J. D., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. (2007). Fathers’ influence on their

children’s cognitive and emotional development: From toddlers to pre-K. Applied

Developmental Science, 11, 208–213. doi:10.1080/10888690701762100

Carlson, S. M. (2009). Social origins of executive function development. New Directions for

Child and Adolescent Development, 123, 87–98. doi:10.1002/cd.237

Christensen, A., & Heavey, C. L. (1990). Gender and social structure in the demand/withdraw

pattern of marital conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 73–81.

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.59.1.73

Fanti, K. A., Henrich, C. C., Brookmeyer, K. A., & Kuperminc, G. P. (2008). Toward a

transactional model of parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescent

psychological adjustment. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 28, 252–276.

doi:10.1177/0272431607312766


Kazdin, A.E. (2002). Encyclopedia of Psychology. (8th Volume). Retrieved from

http://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/

Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., Prisco, T. R., & Adams, E. E. (2008). Mother– child and father–child

mutually responsive orientation in the first 2 years and children’s outcomes at preschool

age: Mechanisms of influence. Child Development, 79, 30–44. doi:10.1111/j.1467-

8624.2007.01109.x

Kim-Spoon, J., Longo, G. S., & McCullough, M. E. (2012). Adolescents who are less religious

than their parents are at risk for externalizing and internalizing symptoms: The mediating

role of parent–adolescent relationship quality. Journal Of Family Psychology, 26(4), 636-

641. doi:10.1037/a0029176

Raja, S. N., McGee, R., & Stanton, W. R. (1992). Perceived attachments to parents and peers and

psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 21, 471–

485. doi:10.1007/BF01537898

Votruba, A. M., Braver, S. L., Ellman, I. M., & Fabricius, W. V. (2014). Moral intuitions about

fault, parenting, and child custody after divorce. Psychology, Public Policy, And Law,

20(3), 251-262. doi:10.1037/law0000016

Wallerstein, J., Lewis, J., & Packer Rosenthal, S. (2013). Mothers and their children after

divorce: Report from a 25-year longitudinal study. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 30(2),

167-184. doi:10.1037/a0032511

Weaver, J. M., & Schofield, T. J. (2015). Mediation and moderation of divorce effects on


children’s behavior problems. Journal Of Family Psychology, 29(1), 39-48.

doi:10.1037/fam0000043

Documents

Research Proposal (final)