Although divorce is typically stressful for mothers, the formation of post-divorce dating relationships can help to ease this stress. Unfortunately, research has yet to empirically consider children’s post-divorce adjustment for mothers’ wellbeing leading up to and during mothers’ post-divorce dating. This study addresses the following questions: 1) How do children’s problem behaviors predict mothers’ depressive symptoms following divorce? 2) How do children’s problem behaviors predict the quality of mothers’ dating relationships and the rapport between children and mothers’ dating partners? 3) How do children’s problem behaviors, the quality of mothers’ dating relationships, child-dating partner rapport, and length of mothers’ dating simultaneously impact mothers’ depressive symptoms? Data for this study comes from a longitudinal investigation of recently divorced mothers and their children (N = 232). Hierarchical linear models revealed that mothers experienced more depressive symptoms when their children exhibited more internalizing behaviors. Children’s internalizing behaviors were negatively associated with the quality of mothers’ dating relationships. When examining these variables simultaneously, increases in children’s internalizing behaviors and decreases in relationship quality predicted increases in mothers’ depressive symptoms. Promoting family-level adjustment appears best for mothers’ wellbeing following divorce. Other implications for post-divorce adjustment are discussed.

虽然离婚通常会给母亲带来压力，但离婚后建立约会关系可以帮助缓解这种压力。不幸的是，研究尚未从实证角度考虑孩子在离婚后对母亲在离婚前和约会期间的幸福感的调整。本研究解决了以下问题：1）儿童的问题行为如何预测离婚后母亲的抑郁症状？ 2) 孩子的问题行为如何预测母亲约会关系的质量以及孩子和母亲约会对象之间的融洽关系？ 3) 孩子的问题行为、母亲约会关系的质量、孩子与约会对象的融洽关系以及母亲约会的时间长度如何同时影响母亲的抑郁症状？本研究的数据来自对最近离婚的母亲及其子女的纵向调查（ N = 232）。分层线性模型显示，当孩子表现出更多的内化行为时，母亲会经历更多的抑郁症状。孩子的内化行为与母亲约会关系的质量呈负相关。当同时检查这些变量时，儿童内化行为的增加和关系质量的下降预示着母亲抑郁症状的增加。促进家庭层面的调整似乎最有利于离婚后母亲的福祉。讨论了离婚后调整的其他影响。