Abstract
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.
Highlights
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Children’s internalizing behavior predicted mothers’ depressive symptoms.
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Children’s internalizing behaviors predicted declines in mothers’ relationships.
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Relationship quality and children’s internalizing behaviors predicted mothers’ depressive symptoms.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, R01 HD41463-01A1. We would also like to acknowledge Holly Reidelbach for all of her hard work with collecting data for this study.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by E.R.A. and S.M.G. The first draft of the manuscript was written by M.R.L., and revisions and updated drafts were written by J.S.D. and M.R.L. M.R.L. conducted the analyses for this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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DeAnda, J.S., Langlais, M.R., Anderson, E.R. et al. Examining Children’s Problem Behaviors and Mothers’ Dating for Mothers’ Depressive Symptoms Following Divorce. J Child Fam Stud 30, 2165–2179 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02029-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02029-8