The effect of parental divorce on young adults' romantic ... · PDF fileThe effect of parental divorce on young adults’ romantic relationship dissolution: What makes a difference?

Personal Relationships, (2010). Printed in the United States of America.Copyright © 2010 IARR; DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01306.x

The effect of parental divorce on young adults’romantic relationship dissolution: What makesa difference?

MING CUI, FRANK D. FINCHAM, AND JARED A. DURTSCHI

The Florida State University

AbstractIt was proposed that parental divorce does not have a uniform effect on young adults’ romantic relationships and thatdifferential outcomes depend on how young adults perceive their parents’ divorce. Using a sample of 571 youngadults, structural equation modeling suggested that, compared with those from intact families, young adults whoseparents divorced held a more favorable attitude toward divorce. A positive attitude toward divorce was associatedwith lower commitment to their romantic relationship, which in turn affected its dissolution. More importantly,young adults’ perception of parental divorce varied depending on interparental conflict and parents’ marital qualitybefore the divorce. The variation in the perception of interparental divorce was linked to relationship dissolution viaattitude toward divorce and relationship commitment.

Until recently, it was assumed that romanticrelationships in youth were not particularlyimportant or formative (see Arnett, 2004;Brown, Feiring, & Furman, 1999; Collins &van Dulmen, 2006). But recent data havemade it clear that such an assumption isno longer tenable (Carver, Joyner, & Udry,2003; Collins, 2003). Romantic relationshipsin young adults are important for at least threereasons. First, the formation and maintenanceof romantic relationships are critical develop-mental tasks for youth during the transition toadulthood (Amato et al., 2008; van Dulmen,Goncy, Haydon, & Collins, 2008). Second,

Ming Cui and Jared A. Durtschi, Department of Fam-ily and Child Sciences, The Florida State University.Frank D. Fincham, Family Institute, The Florida StateUniversity.

This study was made possible by Grant 90FE0022/01from the Department of Health and Human ServicesAdministration for Children and Families awarded to thesecond author.

Correspondence should be addressed to Ming Cui,Department of Family and Child Sciences, 216 SandelsBuilding, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL32306, e-mail: [email protected].

romantic relationship development and disso-lution have important consequences on youthwell-being and behavioral adjustment (e.g.,Davila, Steinberg, Kachadourian, Cobb, &Fincham, 2004; House, Landis, & Umberson,1988; van Dulmen et al., 2008). Finally, pat-terns of romantic relationships in youth couldbe predictive of later relationships and mar-riage in adulthood (Raley, Criseey, & Muller,2007). For example, frequent relationshipsand relationship breakups could be an indi-cation of an inability to have successful long-term relationships (e.g., Rodrigues, Hall, &Fincham, 2006). Consequently, it is importantto understand developmental precursors thatincrease the likelihood of establishing stableand satisfying romantic relationships.

Of all the factors that could predict youngadult romantic relationship satisfaction anddissolution, specific characteristics in the fam-ily of origin are especially relevant (Conger,Cui, Bryant, & Elder, 2000). In particular,parental divorce has been demonstrated tohave an impact on young adults’ romanticrelationship dissolution (Bartell, 2006). How-ever, the effects of divorce are diverse and

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2 M. Cui, F. D. Fincham, and J. A. Durtschi

complex (e.g., Buchanan, 2000), and not allchildren from divorced families experiencerelationship difficulties and dissolution. Onlylimited research has focused on the fac-tors that can explain variation in the impactof parental divorce on offspring. This studyaddresses this issue by investigating howparental divorce may affect young adultromantic relationship dissolution differentlythrough perceptions of parental divorce, atti-tudes toward divorce, and commitment toone’s romantic relationship.

The importance of studying romanticrelationship dissolution

Even though romantic relationships duringemerging and young adulthood could beself-focused and unstable (Arnett, 2004), asCollins and van Dulmen (2006) pointedout, substantial continuity in close relation-ships and development in one period of lifebuilds upon development from an earlier time.This view is consistent with the cognitive-developmental model (Furman & Simon, 1999)as well as the life course perspective (Elder,1985). For example, Lichter and Qian (2008)argued that experiences of relationship breakupscould make it easier to terminate the nextrelationship, including marital relationships.From a developmental perspective, Karneyand Bradbury (1995) also suggested that somerisk factors for marital problems and divorcecould be identified in premarital relationships.Attitudes and behaviors related to romanticrelationships could predict future marital atti-tudes and behaviors (e.g., Axinn & Thornton,1993; Bayer, 1969). Therefore, establishingstable romantic relationships is one of themajor developmental tasks during emergingadulthood (Conger et al., 2000; Fincham &Cui, 2011). Consequently, it is important toexamine romantic relationship dissolution andfactors that could predict relationship dissolu-tion (Rodrigues et al., 2006; Simpson, 1987).

Although some researchers have proposedthat youth should explore their options inromance and gain relationship experiencein emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2004), mostresearch findings have shown that youngadults do not break up their romantic relation-

ships for the purpose of exploring furtherromantic options. Instead, relationship disso-lution is usually preceded by low levels ofcommitment, low relationship efficacy, highlevels of conflict, poor communication, cheat-ing, aggression, and low relationship satisfac-tion and quality (see Rodrigues et al., 2006;Simpson, 1987). Several studies have shownthat close, secure, and positive relationshipslast longer than relationships characterized byconflict and low commitment (e.g., Shulman,Tuval-Mashiach, Levran, & Anbar, 2006).Therefore, this study examines the associationbetween parental divorce and youth relation-ship dissolution, and whether youth’s attitudestoward divorce and commitment to their cur-rent relationships mediate such an association.

The effects of parental divorce on youngadults’ romantic relationship dissolution

Nearly half of marriages today end in divorce(Amato & Irving, 2006; Cherlin, 2009).It is therefore important to examine howyoung adults from family contexts markedby parental divorce cope with the task ofdeveloping their own romantic relationships.The cognitive-developmental model proposesthat youth develop cognitive representationsfrom their relational experiences and thesecognitive representations are activated in rel-evant social situations (Bartell, 2006; Collins& Read, 1994; Furman & Simon, 1999).Specifically, cognitive representations consistof memories of past experiences and observedrelational experiences, including parental di-vorce. Such representations are hypothesizedto influence youth’s beliefs, attitudes, andexpectations about self and others, which, inturn, affect how they perceive and behavein their own relationships. Similarly, sociallearning theory (Bandura, 1977) also pre-dicts that observing parental divorce canshape young adults’ attitudes toward divorceand involvement in their own romanticrelationships.

Both the cognitive-developmental modeland social learning theory suggest that parentaldivorce does not necessarily affect youngadults’ attitude toward divorce uniformlybut rather likely depends on young adults’

Parental divorce and romantic relationships 3

experience of their parents’ divorce, includingthe level of interparental conflict and mari-tal quality before the divorce. Furthermore,it is likely that relationship commitment issimilarly affected by parental divorce. Specif-ically, if a romantic relationship is viewed assomething that is expendable and best termi-nated when inevitable difficulties arise, thereis little incentive to have a strong commitmentto the relationship. Therefore, young adultsmay develop patterns of leaving a less thansatisfying relationship rather than work on therelationship based on modeled behavior fromtheir parents.

Earlier studies have demonstrated theintergenerational transmission of divorce(e.g., Amato, 1996; Amato & Booth, 1997;McLanahan & Bumpass, 1988; Pope &Mueller, 1976). A few studies have extendedthis line of inquiry to examine the impact ofparental divorce on nonmarital unions of off-spring and have yielded similar results. Forexample, using a British sample, Kiernan andCherlin (1999) found a positive associationbetween parental divorce and offspring rela-tionship dissolution. Using a Swedish sample,Gahler, Hong, and Bernhardt (2009) foundsimilar results. However, these studies exam-ined relationship dissolution in general termsand did not differentiate marriage from non-marital relationships.

Only a few studies have examined theassociation between parental divorce andyoung adult romantic relationships specifi-cally. Using a random sample of 464 youngadult couples in romantic relationships,Jacquet and Surra (2001) found that com-pared to women from intact families, womenfrom divorced families reported less relation-ship satisfaction. Ross and Mirowsky (1999)also found that parental divorce was associ-ated with less happy relationships. Sassler,Cunningham, and Lichter (2009) found that,compared with youth who grew up in intactfamilies, youth who grew up with divorcedparents reported lower romantic relation-ship satisfaction and a heightened percep-tion that their own romantic relationshipswould end. Weigel (2007) also suggestedthat young adults from divorced familieswere more likely to gain the message that

relationships are not permanent. Similarly,several other studies have documented thatchildren of divorce report less desire forlong-term relationships (Booth, Brinkerhoff,& White, 1984; Gabardi & Rosen, 1992;Kinnaird & Gerrard, 1986). Even though thesestudies have focused on romantic relation-ships, they examined relationship satisfactionand expectations of relationship dissolutionrather than actual relationship dissolution.This study will examine the association be-tween parental divorce and young adults’actual romantic relationship dissolution.

Given the limited research on parentaldivorce and young adult relationship dis-solution, it is not surprising that little isknown about potential mechanisms that linkparental divorce to offspring romantic rela-tionship dissolution. However, several studieson parental divorce and offspring divorce havefound that divorce attitude and commitmentto marriage mediated the association betweenthe two. For example, compared with chil-dren from intact families, children of divorcehold more pessimistic views of marriage andmore liberal attitudes toward divorce, andsee divorce as a solution to a problem-atic marriage (e.g., Amato, 1996; Amato &Booth, 1997; Axinn & Thornton, 1996; Booth,Johnson, White, & Edwards, 1985; Trent &South, 1992). Similarly, other studies havesuggested that youth from divorced familiesshow lower levels of commitment to theirmarriages (Amato & DeBoer, 2001; Amato& Rogers, 1999; Whitton, Rhoades, Stanley,& Markman, 2008). As noted, all these stud-ies focused on parental divorce and offspringdivorce, rather than on premarital romanticrelationships. This study therefore attemptsto examine the potential mediating effectsof divorce attitude and commitment to cur-rent relationship on the association betweenparental divorce and young adults’ premaritalromantic relationship dissolution.

A review of the limited research in this areasuggests that, similar to the research on theintergenerational transmission of divorce, atti-tude toward divorce and commitment to cur-rent relationship could play an important rolein explaining the association between parentaldivorce and premarital relationship outcomes.


Segrin and Taylor (2006) studied young cou-ples in romantic relationships and found thatparental divorce was associated with dimin-ished beliefs in lifelong marriage. Riggio andWeiser (2008) found that parental divorce wasrelated to positive attitude toward divorce andmore negative relationship outcomes, includ-ing low relationship commitment and relation-ship satisfaction among college students. Cuiand Fincham (2010) also found that parentaldivorce was associated with positive attitudestoward divorce, low relationship commitment,and low relationship quality. These studiessuggest that parental divorce may influencedivorce attitude and relationship commitment,which will affect relationship quality, butnone of these studies actually examined rela-tionship dissolution.

If people hold a pessimistic attitude aboutmarriage and believe that divorce is an easieralternative than working on the marriage, it ispossible that they would also not devote muchtime and energy to a current romantic relation-ship with the idea that they could choose tosimply leave the relationship if it did not workout. A declining commitment to a relationshipcould then increase the odds of relationshipfailure. Therefore, it is expected that having afavorable attitude toward divorce would leadto low commitment through a self-fulfillingprophecy. Similarly, having an optimistic atti-tude about marriage and a more conserva-tive attitude toward divorce could promotegreater commitment to a romantic relation-ship. Therefore, the first goal of this study is toexamine whether parental divorce influencesyoung adults’ romantic relationship dissolu-tion through attitude toward divorce and com-mitment to current relationship. On the basisof the earlier research findings, we proposedthat:

H1: Compared with offspring from intactfamilies, young adults whose parentsdivorced would hold a more favorableattitude toward divorce. This morefavorable attitude toward divorcewould be associated with low commit-ment to a current relationship, whichin turn would increase the likelihoodof relationship dissolution.

The differential effects of parental divorce onromantic relationship dissolution

Much less studied is the variation in relation-ship outcome within the population of chil-dren of divorce. Not all children of divorceexperience difficulties in their own relation-ships. Parental divorce is not a uniform expe-rience and diverse experiences associated withparental divorce may account for variation inromantic relationship outcomes among chil-dren of divorce (Bartell, 2006). Thereforeresearch is needed to examine specific aspectsof the parental divorce experience that may beassociated with differential effects on roman-tic relationship dissolution.

One of the most important factors thatcould affect romantic relationships amongchildren of divorce is interparental conflictbefore and during the divorce. Recent stud-ies have found that young adults’ percep-tions of interparental conflict are associatedwith their own romantic relationship problems(e.g., Cui, Fincham, & Pasley, 2008; Segrin,Taylor, & Altman, 2005). Parental divorceis usually preceded by conflict between par-ents. However, children’s perception of inter-parental conflict could vary depending on thecontent, frequency, and intensity of the con-flict. Research on interparental conflict andchild adjustment has shown that parental con-flicts that are overt, intense, and child relatedare more strongly associated with child mal-adjustment than conflicts that are less evident(covert), intense, and not child related (Davies& Cummings, 2006; Grych & Fincham,1990). Therefore, children of divorce couldform different perceptions of their parents’divorce based on their degree of exposure tointerparental conflict and the extent to whichthey feel “caught in the middle.” High lev-els of such experiences can be very hard forchildren. For these children, parental divorcefollowing high levels of observed conflict maybe viewed as a relief. Studies have shownthat for those children who were freed from ahigh-conflict home environment by parentaldivorce, their well-being actually improved(Booth & Amato, 2001; Jekielek, 1998). Con-sequently, these children could develop amore positive attitude toward divorce. In


fact, Kapinus (2005) found that among youngadults whose parents remained married acrossthe study period, those who reported higherlevels of interparental conflict believed thattheir parents should have divorced. Further-more, these young adults also reported morepositive views of divorce. However, if parentsmanage to handle their conflict away fromthe children and leave their children out ofthe conflict, these children may not observehigh levels of interparental conflict and there-fore may not view their parents’ divorce asnecessary. Consequently, they may still viewmarriage positively and not favor divorce asa means of dealing with marital problems. Asa result, compared with children of divorcewho experienced high levels of interparentalconflict, these children of divorce could havea more conservative attitude toward divorce.

In addition to the observed interparentalconflict before divorce, the limited researchin this area also suggests that children’sevaluation of the quality of their parents’marriage before divorce also affects their atti-tude toward divorce. For example, parentaldivorce is found to be associated with positiveattitudes toward divorce among children whoview their parents as having had low mari-tal quality before divorce. In addition, chil-dren who are happier after parental divorceare more likely to accept divorce (Axinn& Thorton, 1996; Cunningham & Thornton,2005). Kapinus (2005) found that youngadults who believed their parents had lowermarital quality were more likely to hold tol-erant views of divorce. However, this studyused a sample of parents who were mar-ried. Overall, these studies demonstrate theimportance of examining situations surround-ing parental divorce. However, extant researchon this topic is quite limited and no stud-ies have tested potential mediating processes.Therefore, this study will extend previousresearch from focusing on divorce attitude asan outcome to testing the mediating role ofattitude to divorce and commitment in theassociation between parental divorce and off-spring relationship dissolution.

The second goal of this study, therefore, isto examine whether the association betweenparental divorce and offspring relationship

dissolution is, at least partially, explained byyoung adults’ perception of parental divorce.Specifically, we propose that if childrenobserved high levels of interparental conflictbefore parental divorce and believed their par-ents’ marriage before the divorce was bad,they will tend to see the divorce as a nec-essary outcome and may even feel relievedby it. From their perception of their parents’divorce experience, these young adults maydevelop a generally favorable attitude towarddivorce. However, if children did not observehigh levels of conflict and believed their par-ents had a relatively good marriage, they maythink that divorce was not necessary and theirparents’ marriage could have been saved ifthey had tried harder. From their perceptionof their parents’ divorce, these young adultscould form a less favorable attitude towarddivorce. Accordingly, we hypothesized that:

H2: Children’s observed interparentalconflict and marital quality beforeparental divorce would have an impacton how they (children of divorce) per-ceive their parents’ divorce. The expe-rience of their parents’ divorce, inturn, would influence their generalattitude toward divorce. Finally, asin H1, we will test whether divorceattitude and commitment mediate theassociation between offspring expe-rience of parental divorce and theirown romantic relationship outcomes.

Method

Sample and procedure

Participants were undergraduate students at alarge Southern university in an introductorycourse on families across the lifespan, a classthat meets university liberal studies require-ments. Students taking this course came fromvarious departments across campus (e.g., edu-cation, psychology, exercise science, nursing,biological science, nutrition, merchandizing,etc.) and are more representative of the stu-dent population in the university than studentstypically found in the psychology undergrad-uate subject pool. Of the 1,291 students inthe original sample, 662 identified themselves


as being in a romantic relationship and hadparents who were either living together ordivorced (536 had lived with both biolog-ical parents and 126 experienced parentaldivorce). One hundred thirteen were youngmen and 548 were young women. On aver-age, their romantic relationship duration wasabout 1 year. Of the 662 participants, 571 hadcomplete data on all the variables of interest.Among the 571 participants, 111 were fromdivorced families. Examination of participantswith incomplete data showed no indication ofselective attrition. Therefore, 571 participantswere included to test H1 (divorce vs. intactfamilies). Among them, 111 young adults ofparental divorce were used to test H2 (amongdivorced families).

Students in the class were offered multi-ple options to earn extra credit. One of theoptions, approved by the local InstitutionalReview Board, was to complete the mea-sures used in this study. Before doing so,they read a consent form explaining the vol-untary nature of the participation and weretold that the instructor in the course was notone of the researchers conducting the survey.At an initial assessment, all participants com-pleted questionnaires on their parents’ maritalstatus and conflict, their attitude toward mar-riage and divorce, and relationship questions.They provided data again 7 weeks later and14 weeks later.

Measures

To test H1 (divorce vs. intact families), mea-sures of parental divorce and general attitudetoward marriage and divorce obtained at Time1, commitment to current relationship at Time2, and relationship dissolution at Time 3 wereincluded.

Relationship dissolution

Relationship dissolution was assessed 14weeks after the initial assessment by askingwhether the relationship reported in previouswaves had ended. The variable was coded as0 = no and 1 = yes.

Parental divorce

A dichotomous variable was created toevaluate the status of parental divorce. The

variable was coded as 0 = intact and 1 =divorced.

Attitude toward divorce

Attitude toward marriage and divorce wasassessed using items from the Attitude TowardDivorce Scale (Amato, Booth, Johnson, &Rogers, 2007). This six-item measure asksrespondents about their attitude toward di-vorce. Each item ranged from 1 = stronglydisagree to 4 = strongly agree. Two indica-tors were formed based on factor analyses.The first indicator consisted of three itemsfavoring divorce (e.g., “It is okay for people toget married, thinking that if it does not workout, they can always get a divorce”). The threeitems were summed together to form the indi-cator. The second indicator consisted of threeitems disapproving divorce (e.g., “Marriage isfor life, even if the couple is unhappy”). Theseitems were reverse scored and then summedtogether. Thus, a high score on both indica-tors reflected a more favorable attitude towarddivorce.

Commitment to current relationship

Participants’ commitment toward their currentrelationship was assessed using four itemsfrom the dedication subscale of Stanley’sCommitment Scale (Stanley & Markman,1992). This abbreviated scale has been widelyused by Stanley, Markman, and Whitton(2002). The items ask respondents about theircommitment to their current relationship (e.g.,“I want this relationship to stay strong no mat-ter what rough times we may encounter” and“I may not want to be with my partner a fewyears from now”) with responses on each itemranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 =strongly agree. One item was reverse codedand the four items were summed togetherto create a composite score of commitmenttoward their current relationship, with a highscore indicating a high level of commitment.The α coefficient was .75.

To test H2 (within divorce families), mea-sures of interparental conflict before divorce,parents’ marital quality before divorce, andperceptions of own parents’ divorce wereincluded in addition to the above describedmeasures used to test H1.


Observation of interparental conflictbefore parental divorce

For young adults whose parents divorced,their report of interparental conflict beforetheir parents’ divorce was assessed to evaluatethe degree of conflict between the parentsbefore they divorced, and this measure wasused in testing H2 (for young adults fromintact families, observed interparental conflictwas also assessed and was used as a controlvariable in testing H1). Observed interparentalconflict was assessed using several itemsadapted from the Children’s Perceptions ofInterparental Conflict Scale (Grych, Seid, &Fincham, 1992). Twelve items were selectedthat assessed three distinct dimensions ofconflict behavior: frequency, intensity, andresolution. These three indicators have beenshown to reflect a single latent construct,labeled “conflict properties” (Grych et al.,1992). Each indicator consisted of four items.Sample items included “My parents hardlyever argued or disagreed” (frequency), “Myparents tended to get really angry when theyargued or disagreed” (intensity), and “Whenmy parents argued, they usually worked thingsout” (resolution). Each item had three possibleresponses: 1 = true, 2 = sort of true, and 3 =false. Some items were reverse coded sothat a high score indicated a high level ofconflict. The α coefficients for frequency,intensity, and resolution were .86, .88, and.85, respectively.

Evaluation of parents’ marital qualitybefore parental divorce

Within the subsample of children of divorce,a single item was used to ask the partic-ipants to “describe your parents’ relation-ship before they divorced.” The responsesranged from 1 = as bad as it gets to 10 =as good as it gets.

Perceptions of parental divorce

Children of divorce were asked about theirperceptions of their parents’ divorce. A seven-item scale was developed for the study, andparticipants rated their responses to the itemson a scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree

to 10 = strongly agree. Two indicators of alatent construct of perception of parentaldivorce were created. The first indicator con-sisted of three items reflecting the perceptionthat their parents should not have divorcedand that the divorce was unnecessary (e.g.,“In my opinion, my parents’ marriage wasgood enough that divorce wasn’t needed”).The three items were summed together toform the indicator and the α coefficient forthis measure was .85. The second indica-tor consisted of four items reflecting theperception that parental divorce was nec-essary (e.g., “My parents’ marriage wasso bad that divorce was necessary” and“When my parents divorced, I felt relievedbecause they had such a bad relationship”).The items were reverse coded and thenadded together. Coefficient α for this mea-sure was .89. A high score on both indi-cators reflected the perception that parentsshould not have divorced (i.e., parents’ mar-riage was not that bad and divorce wasunnecessary).

In addition, participants’ gender and rela-tionship duration were also included as con-trol variables. Youth gender was coded as 0 =male and 1 = female. Relationship durationwas also assessed by asking about the lengthof the relationship (1 = less than 2 months,2 = 3–4 months, 3 = 5–6 months, 4 = 7–12months, 5 = 1–2 years, and 6 = 2 + years).

Results

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 provides the means, standard devia-tions, and sample sizes for the study vari-ables for the whole sample as well as byparental marital status. Overall, young adultsfrom divorced families reported a more favor-able attitude toward divorce than those fromintact families. Young adults of divorce alsoreported a slightly lower level of relationshipcommitment. In addition, a higher propor-tion of young adults of divorce reported rela-tionship dissolution over the 14-week period.However, the differences in relationship com-mitment and dissolution between the twogroups were not statistically significant.


Table 1. Descriptive information with demographic characteristics by parental divorce

VariablesTotal

(N = 571)Divorced

(N = 111)Intact

(N = 460)

(Favorable) Attitude toward divorceFavor couple divorce 7.44 (1.64) 8.06 (1.74) 7.28 (1.58)Favor couple stay together (recode) 7.03 (1.54) 7.28 (1.38) 6.97 (1.57)

Interparental conflictFrequency 6.86 (2.63) 8.90 (2.50) 6.37 (2.42)Intensity 7.34 (2.74) 8.77 (2.86) 7.00 (2.60)Resolution 6.57 (2.39) 8.73 (2.28) 6.04 (2.10)

Parents’ marital quality beforedivorce

4.35 (2.11)

Young adults’ perception of parental divorceParents should not have divorced

(unnecessary)11.35 (7.00)

Parental divorce necessary (recode) 21.25 (10.47)Relationship commitment 15.16 (3.13) 14.86 (3.14) 15.23 (3.13)Relationship dissolution (n)

No 421 79 342Yes 150 32 118

Control variablesYoung adult gender (n)

Male 85 14 71Female 486 97 389

Relationship duration 4.33 (1.63) 4.39 (1.71) 4.32 (1.61)

Note. Mean values are outside parentheses and standard deviations are inside parentheses. Parents’ marital qualitybefore divorce and young adults’ perception of parental divorce were assessed among young adults from divorcedfamilies only. The ranges of the variables for the whole sample were: favor divorce (3–12), favor stay together(3–12), interparental conflict frequency (4–12), intensity (4–12), resolution (4–12), relationship commitment (4–20),and relationship duration (1–6). Bolded pairs indicate that the mean differences between the divorced and intact groupsare statistically significant at α = .01 or .05.

Correlations

Table 2 provides the correlations among thestudy variables for the whole sample (N =571). Parental divorce was significantly cor-related with offspring’s favorable attitudetoward divorce (r = .19, p < .01). In addi-tion, favorable attitude toward divorce wasalso negatively correlated with commitmentto current relationship (r = −.17, p < .01).Finally, commitment to relationship was neg-atively correlated with relationship dissolu-tion (r = −.28, p < .01). Regarding controlvariables, interparental conflict was signifi-cantly correlated with parental divorce andyoung adults’ divorce attitude. Young womenshowed a more favorable attitude towarddivorce than young men, and relationship

duration was associated with higher com-mitment and less likelihood of relationshipdissolution.

Table 3 shows correlations among thestudy variables for the divorced subsample(N = 111). Reports of interparental conflictbefore parental divorce and parents’ mari-tal quality before divorce were highly corre-lated with offspring perceptions of parentaldivorce (r = −.57, p < .01 between inter-parental conflict and divorce perception, andr = .68, p < .01 between marital qualityand divorce perception). Young adults’ per-ception of parental divorce (as “unneces-sary”) was significantly associated with lessfavorable attitude toward divorce (r = −.40,p < .01). Attitude toward divorce was also


Table 2. Correlations among variables in the structural equation model for the wholesample

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Parental divorce 1.002. Interparental conflict .42∗∗ 1.003. (Favorable) Attitude

toward divorce.19∗∗ .13∗∗ 1.00

4. Relationshipcommitment

−.05 −.10∗∗ −.17∗∗ 1.00

5. Relationshipdissolution

.03 .05 .04 −.28∗∗ 1.00

6. Young adult gender .03 .08 .09∗ −.01 −.04 1.007. Relationship

duration.02 −.07 .02 .21∗∗ −.18∗∗ .04 1.00

Note. N = 571. Parental divorce: 0 = intact and 1 = divorced. Relationship dissolution: 0 = no and 1 = yes. Youngadult gender: 0 = male and 1 = female.∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. Two-tailed test.

Table 3. Correlations among variables in the structural equation model for the divorcedsample

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Interparental conflict 1.002. Marital quality

before divorce−.64∗∗ 1.00

3. Perceptions ofparental divorce(unnecessary)

−.57∗∗ .68∗∗ 1.00

4. (Favorable) Attitudetoward divorce

.25∗ −.28∗∗ −.40∗∗ 1.00

5. Relationshipcommitment

−.07 .08 .17 −.29∗∗ 1.00

6. Relationshipdissolution

.14 −.06 −.15 .04 −.31∗∗ 1.00

7. Young adult gender .23∗ −.09 −.11 .01 .03 −.06 1.008. Relationship

duration−.19∗ .12 .23∗ −.06 .46∗∗ −.40∗∗ −.04 1.00

Note. N = 111. Relationship dissolution: 0 = no and 1 = yes. Young adult gender: 0 = male and 1 = female.∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. Two-tailed test.

significantly associated with relationship com-mitment. Finally, relationship commitmentcorrelated significantly with young adults’romantic relationship dissolution. Regardingcontrol variables, young women reported aslightly higher level of interparental conflictbefore divorce than young men. Those with

longer relationships reported higher levels ofrelationship commitment and stability. Withthese preliminary findings, we now turn tostructural equation modeling (SEM) to test thehypotheses. Mplus 5.1 (Muthen & Muthen,1998-2007) was used to estimate the follow-ing SEMs.


Youth Gender

Parental Divorce

(Favorable) Attitude to

Divorce

.32*(.08)

.13**

.02

.41**(.21)

.64**(.17)

Interparental Conflict

Relationship Duration

.03(.05)

Relationship Dissolution

Relationship Commitment

−.37**(−.17)

.04

−.21**

Figure 1. The effects of parental divorce on young adults’ romantic relationship dissolution(testing H1).Note. N = 571. For continuous endogenous variables, unstandardized coefficients are outsideparentheses and standardized coefficients are inside parentheses. For relationship dissolution,only unstandardized coefficients (log odds) are reported.*p < .05. **p < .01. One-tailed test.

SEM testing H1

Figure 1 shows the results of the SEM testingH1 with the whole sample (N = 571). The −2log likelihood was 14,481.56. Young adults’report of interparental conflict was included asa control variable. In addition, paths from gen-der and relationship duration (as control vari-ables) to all endogenous variables were tested,but only the significant paths are reported inFigure 1.

Figure 1 shows the support for our ini-tial hypothesis. First, it can be seen thatexperiencing parental divorce was positivelyassociated with a more favorable attitudetoward divorce (b = .64, p < .01). Further-more, favorable attitude toward divorce wassignificantly and negatively related to roman-tic relationship commitment (b = −.37, p <

.01). Relationship commitment, in turn, wassignificantly and negatively related to rela-tionship dissolution (b = −.21, p < .01), sug-gesting that a one-unit increase or decreasein commitment was associated with .21 unitdecrease or increase in the log of the odds

of relationship dissolution. To interpret thisin terms of the odds ratio (e−.21 = .81), aone-unit increase or decrease in commit-ment resulted in a corresponding decrease orincrease in the odds of relationship dissolutionby a factor of .81 or by 19% (1 − .81 = .19).In sum, support was found for H1 as therewas a pathway from parental divorce to rela-tionship dissolution via attitude to divorce andrelationship commitment.

SEM testing H2

Figure 2 shows the results of the SEM test-ing H2 with the subsample of young adultsfrom divorced families (N = 111). The −2log likelihood was 4,182.31. Figure 2 revealsseveral important findings. First, as hypoth-esized, both young adults’ reports of inter-parental conflict and marital quality beforedivorce were significantly associated withyoung adults’ perceptions of their parents’divorce (b = −.51, p < .05 from parentaldivorce to divorce perception; b = 1.53, p <

.01 from marital quality to divorce perception).


Youth Gender

P. Marital Quality

Before Divorce

(Favorable) Attitude to

Divorce

.09

−.55**(−.26)

−.51*(−.22)

P. Conflict Before

Divorce

Relationship Duration

1.53**(.61)

Perceptions of P. Divorce (Unnecessary)

.20

−.11**(−.39)

Relationship Commitment

Relationship Dissolution

−.23**

−.16(−.04)

.81**(.45)

Figure 2. Variation in parental divorce and young adults’ romantic relationship dissolution(testing H2).Note. N = 111. For continuous endogenous variables, unstandardized coefficients are outsideparentheses and standardized coefficients are inside parentheses. For relationship dissolution,only unstandardized coefficients (log odds) are reported. P. = Parental.*p < .05. **p < .01. One-tailed test.

Second, perception of parental divorce (as“unnecessary”) was, in turn, significantlyassociated with less favorable attitude towarddivorce. Third, attitude toward divorce wassignificantly associated with relationship com-mitment. Finally, relationship commitmentwas related to relationship dissolution (b =−.23, p < .01, odds ratio = e−.23 = .80),suggesting that a one-unit increase or decreasein commitment decreased or increased theodds of relationship dissolution by a factorof .80 or by 20%. In sum, our second hypoth-esis was supported as young adults’ reportsof interparental conflict and marital qualitybefore the divorce were related to their per-ceptions of parental divorce, which in turnwere linked to general attitude toward divorce.As before, divorce attitude and commitmentmediated the association between offspringexperience of parental divorce and their ownromantic relationship dissolution.

Discussion

This study examined the association betweenparental divorce and young adults’ romanticrelationship dissolution. We hypothesized thatparental divorce would be linked to youngadults’ relationship dissolution via their atti-tude toward divorce and relationship commit-ment (H1). More importantly, motivated bythe need to understand variation in the impactof parental divorce, we hypothesized that theimpact of parental divorce on young adults’romantic relationship dissolution would varydepending on their perception of parentalmarital quality and conflict before parentaldivorce (H2). Results from SEM analysis sup-ported both hypotheses.

Comparing offspring from intact familiesand divorced families (H1), we found thatyoung adults from divorced families demon-strated a more favorable attitude towarddivorce than those from intact families. This


favorable attitude toward divorce was asso-ciated with lower levels of commitment totheir own romantic relationships, which inturn were associated with relationship disso-lution during the 14-week study period. Thisfinding is consistent with those from earlierstudies on the association between parentaldivorce and offspring divorce (e.g., Amato,1996; Amato & Booth, 1997; McLanahan& Bumpass, 1988; Pope & Mueller, 1976).Furthermore, it extended the association ofparental divorce and offspring divorce to theassociation between parental divorce and off-spring romantic relationships and suggestedsimilar findings. This is important becauseattitudes and behaviors in romantic relation-ships have been found to predict future atti-tudes and behaviors in marriage (Axinn &Thornton, 1993). Therefore, by investigat-ing how parental divorce affects young adultromantic relationships, researchers may beable to identify early signs of future maritaland relational problems.

Although premarital relationship dissolu-tion may be quite different from divorce, thefindings from this study document a sim-ilar influence of parental divorce on rela-tionship dissolution. However, it is true thatyouth might explore their relationship optionsand enter and exit relationships multipletimes before settling on someone to marry(Arnnet, 2004). Therefore, relationship disso-lution could be due to many different reasons.Among all the different reasons for relation-ship dissolution, some of these relationshipbreakups might be for the better and even pro-mote personal growth, such as termination ofrelationships that are physically aggressive orthat have a negative impact on the youth (e.g.,preventing youth from pursuing educationand career, problem behaviors such as druguse, etc.; see Lewandowski & Bizzoco, 2007;Manning, Giordano, Longmore, & Hocevar,2011). Furthermore, there is considerablevariation in the association between parentaldivorce and youth relationship dissolution.For some young adults, parental divorcemay lead to delay in relationship forma-tion or determination to keep their relation-ships (Cui, Wickrama, Lorenz, & Conger,2011; Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000).

Conversely, despite the various reasons forrelationship dissolution and the differentialimpact of parental divorce on relationship dis-solution, the significant findings in this studydid suggest that a certain pattern in relation-ship dissolution occurred that was explainedby relationship commitment, divorce attitude,and parental divorce. However, it should alsobe noted that no direct association betweenparental divorce and youth relationship disso-lution was found (as indicated in the corre-lation tables and models). Instead, the effectfrom parental divorce on youth relationshipdissolution was indirect through divorce atti-tude and relationship commitment.

Identification of the mechanisms link-ing parental divorce and offspring relation-ship dissolution was an important finding inthis study. Few studies have tested mech-anisms that might account for the relation-ship between parental divorce and offspringrelationship outcomes, especially when itcomes to premarital relationship dissolution.Even though the correlation between parentaldivorce and relationship dissolution was notsignificant, Kenny, Kashy, and Bolger (1998)have extended the mediating test proposedby Baron and Kenny (1986) and suggestedthat the significance of such an associationbetween two variables is not required fortesting potential mediating effects betweenthem given the above significant correlationsinvolving the mediating variables (also seeShrout & Bolger, 2002). The results from thisstudy suggest that parental divorce is associ-ated with a positive attitude toward divorceand low relationship commitment, which inturn is associated with higher odds of rela-tionship dissolution. Young adults who haveexperienced parental divorce are likely tosee divorce as an acceptable solution to anunhappy marriage; they therefore display amore favorable attitude toward divorce. Thisattitude toward divorce could be general-ized to romantic relationships and affect theirdevotion to such relationships. Lower com-mitment, in turn, increased the odds of rela-tionship dissolution.

However, nearly half of all marriagestoday end in divorce (Amato & Irving, 2006;Cherlin, 2009), and not all children of divorce


experience relationship difficulties and disso-lution (Bartell, 2006). This calls for furtherinvestigation of how the context in whicha parental divorce takes place affects chil-dren differently. Analysis of the subsample ofchildren of divorce suggested that children’sreport of interparental conflict and parents’marital quality before parental divorce influ-enced how these young adults perceivedparental divorce (supporting H2). Those whoobserved that their parents had engaged inintense and frequent fighting viewed theirparents’ divorce as a desired outcome follow-ing a bad marriage. These young adults tendedto have a more favorable attitude towarddivorce. Conversely, those who observed lessconflict between their parents held more opti-mistic attitudes toward marriage and wererelatively disapproving of divorce. Comparedwith those of parental divorce with highobserved conflict, these young adults (lowobserved conflict) had better relationship sta-bility and were less likely to report relation-ship dissolution.

The findings on differential effects ofparental divorce on young adults’ romanticrelationship dissolution make several impor-tant contributions to the literature. First, theysuggest that parental divorce does not havea uniform effect on young adult children’sromantic relationships. Divorce can have bothpositive and negative results. For some chil-dren, the parents’ divorce can be devastating.Other children may grow from the experience.In particular, the present findings suggest thatwhen children observe high interparental con-flict before parental divorce and perceive theirparents as having low marital quality, they aremore in favor of their parents’ divorce andtherefore form a more positive attitude towarddivorce. This is consistent with the cognitive-developmental model and social learning the-ory, which propose that young adults’ attitudetoward divorce and behavior in their own rela-tionships are shaped by how they observe andperceive their parents’ marriage and divorceand that different experiences with parentaldivorce have different effects on young adults’romantic relationships.

These findings emphasize the importanceof the context in which divorce occurs,

particularly family processes before divorce.Children have different types of reactions toparental divorce depending on the situationsurrounding the divorce. Our results suggestthat divorce following overt, intense, and fre-quent conflict between parents in a bad mar-riage is especially harmful. Indeed, studies onchild adjustment following parental divorcehave shown that parents’ conflict accounts forup to 50% of the variance in child outcomesattributed to parental divorce (e.g., Cherlinet al., 1991). Findings from this study suggestthat interparental conflict before divorce couldlead to offspring becoming fearful of the kindof committed relationship represented by mar-riage and may also cause offspring to developa more favorable attitude toward divorce and,by extension, a greater willingness to termi-nate a romantic relationship. This finding sug-gests that it is important for parents to handledivorce well so as to minimize its effect onchildren. Specifically, parents could discusstheir problems away from the children andhandle the divorce in a constructive mannerthat is least harmful to children. This mightinclude such things as giving age-appropriateexplanations to children as to what is going tohappen to them (e.g., where are they going tolive, whether they will go to the same school,how and when to visit noncustodial parents,and whether siblings will stay together) andmaking them feel loved and protected duringthe divorce process so that they do not end upfeeling responsible for their parents’ divorce.

The present findings should, however, beviewed in light of several limitations in thedata. First, the subsample of offspring fromdivorced families was rather small (N = 111)for testing a relatively complex model. Sec-ond, even though the sample consisted ofboth young men and women, the majority ofthe participants were young women. Third,our sample comprised undergraduate studentsfrom a Southern university, the majority ofwho were non-Hispanic Whites. Fourth, eventhough we had data on whether the relation-ship ended in the follow-up survey 14 weekslater, given that the average duration of theserelationships were over 1 year, it is hard tofully capture relationship dissolution in a 14-week interval. Fifth, unfortunately, we do not


have data on reasons for relationship dissolu-tion. This means that the failure to take intoaccount the different types of breakups couldaffect the strength and interpretation of thefindings. Specifically, some relationship dis-solutions may not be due to low commitment.Future studies should further examine differ-ent reasons for relationship dissolution andthe potential consequences of such relation-ship dissolutions. In fact, ending a dangerousrelationship (e.g., an abusive relationship) isnot only necessary but also critical, and youngadults should learn the skills to exit suchharmful relationships. Sixth, we do not havedata on the timing of parental divorce. Pre-vious studies have suggested that timing ofparental divorce is associated with the proba-bility of offspring divorce (e.g., Amato, 1996).Similarly, timing of parental divorce couldhave a similar impact on premarital relation-ship dissolution.

Finally, the measures used in this studywere all obtained from the target youth, whichmay inflate the associations among the con-structs (Bank, Dishion, Skinner, & Patterson,1990). However, even though the measuresused in this study were retrospective self-reports, perceived marital conflict and qual-ity could have real consequences on youth’sattitude, commitment, and behavior in rela-tionships. For the purpose of our study onhow participants perceived their parents’ mar-riage and divorce and how their experienceaffected their attitude and behavior based onthe cognitive-developmental model, percep-tions might be especially relevant to their rep-resentations of the parental divorce and theircurrent relationships.

Despite these limitations, this study ad-dressed important issues with regard to par-ental divorce and young adult children’srelationship outcomes. The findings suggestthat parental divorce increased young adultchildren’s romantic relationship dissolutionthrough their forming a more positive atti-tude toward divorce (relationship termination)and consequently a lower level of commit-ment toward one’s own relationship. Moreimportantly, variations in the effect of parentaldivorce could be explained by perceived inter-parental conflict and marital quality before

parents’ divorce. These results help to pin-point specific mechanisms that link parentaldivorce and young adults’ relationship disso-lution and potential factors contributing to thedifferential effects of parental divorce on off-spring romantic relationships. This is valuableinformation as it can be used to inform pre-ventative interventions by identifying poten-tial intervention targets in an effort to reducethe adverse impact of parental divorce onyouth relationship development. The impor-tance of such information is emphasized byrecent government attempts to promote cou-ple relationship education in countries such asAustralia, Japan, Norway, Great Britain, andthe United States (Halford, Markman, & Stan-ley, 2008), and especially in view of recentefforts to provide relationship education toyoung adults in college (see Fincham, Stan-ley, & Rhoades, 2011).

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