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The Effects of Divorce on Young Adults and Distinctions in the
Psychological Well-Being between Young Adults from Divorced
and Non-Divorced Families
Gunuboh, Tamaraubibibogha
Shantel Grayson
Dr. Brenda Gill
Social Science Research II
Alabama State University
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT
The Effects of Divorce on Young Adults and Distinctions in the Psychological Well-Being
between Young Adults from Divorced and Non-Divorced Families
INTRODUCTION
Parental divorce as a social factor is vastly increasing in our immediate society, and
studies revealed that seventy percent of divorce rates in the United State involve children. We
focus to determine the question of what could be the long-term effects of divorce on young
adults. Young adults are youths who are in the transitory period of life into adulthood, and which
is a very complex period because it is period of social and economic growth and the desire for
accomplishment. Therefore, they need the attention of parents to guide them through this period.
We recognize that children grow into adulthood by attaining the age range of 19-24 years with or
without knowing that their encounter with parental divorce impacts on their psychological
makeup.
Background and significance of the study:
Cui, M. Fincham &Ddurtshi, J.A. (2011) uncovered that young adults from divorced
families reported a more favorable attitude toward divorce than those from intact families. As
such, many young adults of divorced families hold pessimistic attitudes about marriage and
believe that divorce is an easier alternative than working the marriage. These findings also
unraveled that young adult of divorced families report a slightly lower level of commitment
towards romantic relationship, so it increases the likelihood of relationship dissolution.
Amato & Irving suggested (as cited in Cui, et al. 2011, p.20) that nearly all marriages
today end in divorce. Besides, Turkat also argued (as cited in Baker, 2005, p.1) that over one
million marriages ends in divorce, and resulted in more than 100,000 couples battling for the
custody of the children. Sobolewski & Amato (2007) observed that children's exposure to
chronic and unresolved conflicts between parents increase the risk of long-term problems for
children even in the absence of divorced. Many other findings also revealed that children have
difficulty in feeling emotionally closed to parents, when parent's relationship is strained.
The National marriage rate is declining, but the rate of divorce is accelerating at an
unimaginable pace in the United States. National Vital Statistics System reported that the U.S
divorce rate topped out at 3.5 to 3.6 between 2008 and 2011. Besides, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau, American Community Survey (2009), in every 17.6 marriage rate per 1,000
women, 9.7 divorce rates per 1,000 women occurred within twelve (12) months in 2009.
However, the significance of our study is to examine the long-term effects of the divorce
on children in their adulthood by finding distinctions in their psychological well-being relative to
young adults from families that were never divorced and young adults from remarried families.
The Purpose of the Study:
This study is designed to examine the effects of divorce on young adults and the
distinctions in the psychological well-being among young adults from divorced and two-parent
families who were never divorced. It is designed to ascertain whether young adults from divorced
families suffer social and psychological problems due to parental divorce after having attained
adulthood as compared to young adults from two-parent families who were never divorced. It
desires to fathom and explain how these seeming social and psychological problems suffer by
young adults due to parental divorce could be contained.
It focuses on examining how divorce psychologically, socially, and emotionally affects
young adults who are exposed to parental divorce. It also aims to examine the generalization
that parental remarriage helps adjust psychological condition of young adults. This proposal also
desires to find out whether there are distinctions in the emotional, social and psychological
components, as well as in the psychological adjustments of young adults from divorced, non-
divorced and remarried families.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The Literatures on the topic leaned to the discovery that parental divorce impacts
psychological, social, emotional stress on young adults, and even sometimes strains young
adults’ romantic relationships and influences their perception of divorce in general. Christensen
and Parke (as cited in Cui, et al., 2011, p.8) stated that the characteristics of the family of origin
of young adults influence their ability to successfully initiate and sustain romantic relationship,
and how they do so. Understandingly, Bandura (as cited in Cui, 2011, p. 2) viewing from
theoretical perspective, social learning theory indicates that behavior can be learned through
observing the gesture of others. Consequently, Amato & Booth (as cited in Cui, et al., 2011, p. 2)
revealed that compared with those whose parents did not divorce and young adults whose parents
divorced are at greater risk of marital difficulties and divorce. However, Yeonok, Chung &
Emery (2010) also disclosed in this direction, they suggested that youths from divorced families
suffer depression, anxiety, angers and low self-esteem.
Sobolewski & Amato (2007) indicated that children's exposure to chronic and unresolved
conflicts between parents increase the risk of long-term problems for children even in the ab-
sence of divorced. Therefore, the significance of this proposal is embedded on the strong desire
to ascertain the psychological and social makeup of young adults who might have been exposed
to parental divorce before and during their transition into adulthood relative to young adults of
intact families, in order to know the distinction in the social and psychological components be-
tween them.
Cui, et al. (2011) in their study of the effect of divorce on young adults’ romantic relation-
ship, sampled 285 undergraduate students at southern university. The students’ attitudes towards
marriage and divorce were assessed, and the participants’ commitment to their current relation-
ship was also examined. Findings in the assessment revealed that both parental divorce and con-
flicts were significantly correlated with young adults’ romantic relationship (Cui, et, al., 2011, p.
6). This revealed that parental divorce significantly influenced young adults’ attitudes toward
marriage and divorce, and these attitudes also influence their commitment to their own relation-
ship. Waldron and Joanis ( as cited in Baker, 2005, p. 2) suggested that parental alienation has an
immediate negative impacts on adults children which are tied to self-hatred, low self-esteem, dis-
tortion of reality tests, and general emotional and psychological problems.
Baker, A. (2005) in a qualitative study sampled 38 adults who had experienced parental
alienation in their childhood period to examine the parental alienation on adult children. The par-
ticipants were asked to explain the kind of relationship he/she had with each parent and what
they believed the impact of the alienation has been. The findings revealed that many of the par-
ticipants referenced negative self-feelings (low self-esteem), 70% of the participants reported ex-
periencing significant episodes of depression in their adulthood which resulted from feeling of
being unloved, and as such were drawn to substance abuse (drug/alcohol use) as a way to over-
come the negative feelings. Besides, many of the participants under study reported lack of trust
in themselves and others, some of them were women were alienated from their parents reported
not trusting that a man would be able to love them. Summarily, Baker, Amy (2005) study re-
vealed that adult children who encountered parental alienation suffer low self-esteem, depres-
sion, lack of trust in themselves, and drug-alcoholic problems. Baker A. (2005) study was built
on what kinds of adults do children grow up to be and what do they perceive the impact of
parental alienation to have on their lives. Parental divorce increases the risks of variety of prob-
lem in adulthood.
Paul R. Amato, Cheadle, J. (2005) in 20 years-longitudinal study discovered that young
adults whose parents or grandparents were divorced suffer low educational attainments, marital
discords, poor quality relationships with mother and father. According to Amato (as cited in
Paul, et al. 2005, p.2) compared with adults with continuously married parents, adults with
divorced parents tend to obtain less education, earn less income, have more troubled marriages,
have weaker ties with parents, and they did report more symptoms of psychological distress.
According to Amato, Keith, McLanahan and Sandefur (as cited in Paul, et al. 2005, p.3)
offspring with divorced parents are more likely to drop out of high school, less likely to attend
college, more likely to be unemployed, and more likely to experience economic hardship as
adults when compared with offspring from continuously married parents. Chase-Lansdale,
Amato and Sobolewski suggested (as cited in Paul, et al. 2005, p.4) that offspring from divorced
parents have an elevated risk of experiencing emotional distress in adulthood.
Kelsey, B., & Sophie, S. (2015) sampled 116 undergraduate students who were within the
age range of 18-22 years old, and employed quantitative techniques to test the impacts of
parental divorce on the emerging adults’ self-esteem by scaling social support and self-esteem to
see whether there is any statistical significance. 71.6% of the participants were from parents
whose marriages are intact, and 22.4% were from divorced parents. The findings we observed
moved a little bit away from prior findings. The findings show that as social support increases, so
did self-esteem. As such, it was suggested that there is no relation between parental marital status
and emerging adults’ self-esteem; therefore, parental marital status does not affect the relation
between social support and self-esteem (Kelsey, et al. 2013). However, Baker, Ben-Ami, &
Trzesniewski argued (as cited in Kelsey & Sophie, 2013, p.5) that adults who experienced
parental divorce in their childhood or adolescence are likely to have decreased self-esteem that
have negative life results in adulthood. Ross, Miller & Short suggested (as cited in Kelsey &
Sophie, 2013, p.3) that college students who came from divorced households often demonstrate
increased levels of anxiety compared to young adults from intact households. Prior studies also
revealed that women are more adversely affected by parental divorce than men.
It was further opined that adolescents from divorced families reports more symptoms of
anxiety and depression, a lower feeling of well-being and more school related problem when
compared to those whose parents stayed together (Storksen, I., Raysamb, E., Turid, L., Holmen
& Kristian T. 2006). According to Amato, Keith, Borrine, Handel, Brown & Searight (as cited in
Storksen, et al., 2006, p. 2) parental discords and conflicts before, during and after a divorce
significantly causes problems of social and psychological adjustment among individuals from
divorced families.
METHODOLOGY
We used quantitative analysis via a survey. Quantitative analysis is the numerical
representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the
phenomena that those observations reflect (Babbie, 2014, p.437). This will be done to examine
the hypothesis that young adults from divorced families grow into adulthood with psychological,
social, and emotional pains relative to young adults from two-parent families who were never
divorced, and whose marriages are intact. We will design a survey questionnaire that will be
divided into sections in order to tackle different parts of our study. We chose to use the survey
method because survey enables researchers’ to collect a veritable wealth of information in a
relatively short period of time (Kerry, Strand, Gregory & Weiss, p.124). Although, the
disadvantage of the survey method is that it does not allow for much in-depth.
Questionnaire is a document containing questions and other types of items designed to
solicit information appropriate for analysis (Babbie, 2014, p.262). The survey will have three
possible sections: One section of the survey will embody demographic characteristics of the
participant: age, race, majors, family and academic classifications of the subjects at the time of
filling the survey. The second section will be designed to test the social and the psychological
well-beings of both subjects from divorced families and two-parent families whose marriages are
intact(this means parents who are still married). The third section will address the question of
whether the remarrying of people who were divorced influences young adults’ (the children of
remarried parents) psychological adjustments.
The focus of the overall sections is to ascertain the distinctions among the three variables
(divorced, remarried, and families in which parents were never divorced). It assesses their social
and psychological conditions; it desires to explain the long term effects of divorce on children
who grew into adulthood in divorced families.
To sum it up, the objective of the study is to examine whether young adults from divorced
families grow into psychological, social, and emotional troubled young adults compared to
young adults from families in which parents were never divorced.
Population
Population is the theoretically specified aggregation of the study elements which is that unit
about which data is collected to provide the basis of analysis (Babbie, E. 2014, p.206). The
population of our study is all undergraduate students registered in Alabama State University,
Montgomery, Alabama
Sample
Sample is a subset of the population selected as units of observation. It is a small number of
individuals drawn from the population (Jack, James & David, 2014, p.174). We wish to sample
150 young adults from the all undergraduate population of students at Alabama State University,
Montgomery, Alabama. The proposed participants must come from divorced, two-parent families
that were never divorced and remarried families. They must be registered undergraduate students
of Alabama State University. The subjects will be selected from any race such as Black/African
American, White/Caucasian, Hispanic/Latino, Asian and others who are currently attending
Alabama State University. All genders will be allowed to participate in the survey. Students from
varying majors such as Criminal justice, Computer information system, Rehabilitation, Social
works, Biology, Mass communication and others must be selected into sample. The participants
must possess one of these classifications (freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior) in order to be
sampled. For any participant to be eligible in order to participate in the survey must be of 19 to
24 years old. We utilized purposive sampling technique to draw our sample from the main
sample (N=150) participants.
Purposive sampling; Purposive sampling is a type of nonprobability sampling in which the
units of observations are selected on the basis of the researcher’s judgment and on the basis
his/her knowledge of a population, its elements, and the purpose of the study (Babbie, 2014,
p.200). We will group the data based what the participants uncover about themselves.
We are going to build our questionnaire on the measurement scales of ordinal, nominal,
and interval/ratio level measures; this is to determine the magnitude of variability among the
three variables. We will use self-administered questionnaire; we will distribute the questionnaire
by hand on the campus of ASU, and in the student center because it will eliminate cost of having
all potential participants to gather in a strategic location in order to respondents to the
questionnaire. We want to sub-sample (n=50) students who are from divorced families, (n=50)
students who are of families that were never divorced, and (n=50) students of remarried families
(N=150 participants). These sub-samples are proposed to scrutinize whether there are
differences in the psychological well-beings of young adults from divorced, non-divorced and
remarried families.
Research Question:
My proposed research question(s) is built on the hypotheses: a) whether young adults from
divorced families suffer psychological, social and emotional stress compared to young adults
from non-divorced families (never divorced families). (b) Whether parents’ remarriage
influences young adults’ psychological adjustment?
Conceptualization Conceptualization defined as mental agreements about what a particular term
specifically means, and it is the process by which we specify what we mean when we use
particular term in research (Babbie, 2014, p.131&133). It provides a specific, agreed-on meaning
for a concept, and for the purpose of research (Babbie, 2014, p.133)
Figure 1: conceptual model on the effects of parental divorce on young adults, and distinction in
the psychological well-being of young adults from divorced, never divorced and remarried
families.
Dependent variables Independent variables
HypothesisPsychological adjustmentLoss of Social Bond
Parental Remarriage
Low self-esteem Parental Divorce
Perception of Loss
Depression
H1: young adults from divorced families suffer low self-esteem.
H2: young adults of divorced families suffer depression
H3: young adults of divorce families do have perception of loss
H4: remarriage helps young adults of remarried parents overcome psychological problem.
Proposed Key Concepts and Measures:
The major concepts that we will be measuring in the questionnaire are potential
psychological, social and emotional concepts; they include self-esteem, and perception of loss,
happiness and depression and psychological adjustments. We will measure these concepts on
measurement scales of nominal, ordinal and interval/ratio level measures to determine the
magnitude of variability among the variables through descriptive statistics such as, the Mean,
Standard deviation, and cross-tabulation. This measures especially the mean and standard
deviation will enable us to know the variability of the Average (mean) as it relates the standard
deviation. We will use cross-tabulation to measure the potential effects of parental remarriage on
the psychological adjustment of young adults, in order to determine directionality in terms of
positive or negative correlation.
Operationalization of the Concepts Variables:
Operationalization is the development of specific research procedures that will result in
empirical observations representing those concepts in the real world (Babbie, 2014, p.141). Once
a researcher has specified the concepts to be studied, the next thing is to operationalize the
concepts (Babbie, 2014, p.119). This means that we have to define the meaning of the variables
in the study in order to determine in part by how they are measured. The challenge here is the
decision on how the desired data will be collected. However, in our study we chose to employ a
questionnaire, so challenges here is to determine the wording of the questionnaire items.
Parental Divorce: Divorce is the legal dissolution of marriage between two-parents.
Young Adults: According to Jakielek, S. Brown, B. (2005) young adults are youths who are in
transition into adulthood, and who are within the age range of 18 to 24 years old.
Psychological Well-Being: According to Dagenais-desmarais and Sovoie, A. (2012) is construct
describing and individual subjective positive experience at work, interpersonal fit, and feeling of
competency, perceived recognition and desire for involvement at work. Hedonic approach (as
cited in Dagenais-desmarais, et al. 2012, p.3) described psychological well-being in term of
happiness and life satisfaction based on indicators of positive affect, negative affect, and life
satisfaction. It is an optimal functioning, meaning and self-actualization. Riff’s model (as cited in
Dagenais-desmarais, et al. 2012, p.3) defined psychological well-being in six dimensions:
autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relation with others and purpose in
life and self-acceptance.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Participants will be told of their right to stop the survey at any time, and/or to skip any
question that is painful for them. Students who become too emotionally disturbed will be in-
formed of and referred to the Alabama State University’s counseling center located right opposite
the office of minority and international student affair in student center. The office number of the
counseling units is room Cl.50 in the student center. Students may also call the center on tele-
phone number 334 229.4382.
Participation in the survey must be voluntary with an informed consent, and no subjects
will be forced to take participate in the survey (Babbie, 2014, p.64). The students will be allowed
to sign a document of confidentiality stating that any identifiable information taken on the
participants will not be exposed, and no information will be linked to the participants. Voluntary
participants in the project must be made to fully understand the possible risk involved, and will
be required to sign a statement indicating that they are fully aware of the risks and that they
choose to participate (Babbie, 2014, p.66). This will be done in order to protect the subjects from
mental, social and emotional harm, and to safeguard their public reputation and integrity. The
subjects’ rights to protection of privacy and well-being should be attending with utmost priority
in line with social and ethical conducts of social science research.
Coding
Coding is the transformation of raw data standardized form understandable by a computer
system. During the coding process, we will assign numbers to represent our variables. We used
SPSS, a statistical program to analyze the results of our study. Our survey is divided into three
sections: demographics, psychological well-being and psychological adjustment. We divided the
surveys between ourselves and merged our findings together in SPSS. Demographic questions
are coded as age, gender, classification, race, and family. We coded Age as 1= 19-21 and 2= 22-
24, and so on Gender 1= male and 2= female 3= other, Classification 1= freshman 2= sophomore
3= junior 4= senior, Race 1= black/African American 2= white 3= Hispanic 4= Asian 5= other.
We examined the social, emotional and psychological well-being of young adults. We coded
“compared to most of my peers, I feel” as in 1= Not happy, 2= Happy, 3=Less happy and 4=Very
happy. Moreover, we coded eight (8) questions in an ordinal and interval/ratio level
measurements, which we coded as 1=disagree, 2=strongly disagree, 3=agree, and 4=strongly
agree. Furthermore, we also coded question number thirteen of the questionnaire as 1=mother
and 2= father.
We also coded the last section, which concerns young adults’ psychological adjustments in
an ordinal and interval/ratio level measurement scale of 1 to 4 as in disagree, strongly disagree,
agree and strongly agree. Two questions on this section were code as 1=unhappy, 2=happy,
3=less happy and 4=very happy.
Data Analysis
We used SPSS data collation to describe the quantitative data through percentage, mean,
standard deviation and chi-square. We will use descriptive statistics via percentages and standard
deviation to investigate the degree of variability as relates to the mean, and use chi-square to
investigate how the categorical variables such as age of the subjects, and race differ from one
another. We employed SPSS to analyze of the raw data of our findings from the N=150 surveys
that we handed out to the respondents, and which collected back after 30 minutes time. We
utilized descriptive statistics on a SPSS to determine the percentage frequency of the
demography of all the (N=150) respondents.
To enable us to analyze whether parental divorce affects young adults psychological well-
being, we selected three cases (divorced, never divorced and remarried) in SPSS to determine the
differences among these families. We tested our H1= young adults from divorced families suffer
low self-esteem, H2= young adults of divorced families suffer depression and H3= young adults
of divorced families do have perception of loss. We employed question number six, seven, nine
and fifteen in our questionnaire to test H1, H2 and H3 to find out whether young adults from
divorced families do suffer from low self-esteem, depression and perception of loss. To achieve
this, we asked our respondents to answer questions on an ordinal and interval level measurement
scale. We used descriptive statistics bearing on the descriptive frequency to run our data.
Afterwards, we applied column, pie and bar charts below to indicate the variations of their
emotional, social and psychological make-up.
Findings
The Table 1: Indicates the demographic characteristics of the respondents and the varying
percent of the participants that participated on the (N=150) surveys. In the age range of 19-21=
(68.5%) responded and 22-24= (31.5%) also answered the survey. The sum of (N=150)
participants that answered the surveys, 56% were female, and 41.3% were male. Based the
educational classification of the respondents, 24.8% of the respondents were sophomore, 35.6%
were junior. The four different races that took part in the survey, 85.3% were Black/African
American, 3.3% were whites, 2.7% were Hispanics, 0.7% was Asians, and 8.0% were others.
Three family types that participated on the survey, 32.7% of the respondents were from a
divorced family, 33.3% were from a remarried family and 34% were from a never divorced
family.
Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Participants
Demography Percent
Age19-2122-24
68.531.5
GenderFemale 56ClassificationSophomoreJunior
24.835.6
RaceBlack/African AmericanWhiteHispanicAsianOther
85.3
3.32.7.78
FamilyDivorcedNever DivorcedRemarried
32.73433.3
H1: young adults of divorced families suffer low self-esteem.
We tested our H1 by asking our respondents from divorced, never divorced and remarried
families to answer the following question: Compared to most of my peers I often show off in
public. Our Respondents were to select disagree, strongly disagree, agree and strongly agree to
enable us to determine whether there is any variation in their social interaction. From the data we
gathered which is represented on the charts below; 43.8% of those from divorced families dis-
agree, 27.1% strongly disagree, 22.9% agree and 6.2% strongly agree. However, 54.9% from
never divorced families disagree, 21.6% strongly disagree, 15.7% agree and 7.5% strongly agree.
50% of those from remarried families disagree, 30% strongly disagree, 16% agree and 4%
strongly agree.
Figures 1, 2, and 3: The Comparison of Social Interaction of Respondents
from Divorced, Never Divorced and Remarried Families
DisgareeStrongly Disagree
AgreeStrongly Agree
43.827.1
22.96.2
Figure 1. If Divorced. Often Show off in
Public
disagree
strongly disagree
agree
strongly disagree
54.9
21.6
15.7
7.5
Figure 2. If Never Di-vorced.
Often Show off in Public
Disgaree
Strongly Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
50
30
16
4
Figure 3. IF Remarried.Often Show of in Public
Furthermore, we also tested the happiness of young adults from the three families in our
study to determine whether parental divorce or remarriage affects young adults psychological
well-being as it relates to happiness. From the data collected which is shown in Figures 4-6, we
observed that 51% of respondents from divorced families were happy, 10.2% were less happy
and that 38.8% were very happy. While 72.5% of the respondents from never divorced were
happy, 5.9% were less happy and 21.6% were very happy. And 34.7% of young adults from re-
married families were happy, 12.2% were less happy and 53.1% were very happy.
Figures 4, 5, and 6: The Comparison of Happiness of Respondents from Di-
vorced, Never Divorced and Remarried Families
Happy Less Happy Very Happy
51
10.2
38.8
Figure 4. If Di-vorced.
Compared to Most of my Peers, I Feel
happy less happy very happy
72.5
5.921.6
Figure 5. If Never Di-vorced.
Compared to Most of my Peers, I Feel
Happy Less Happy Very Happy
34.7
12.2
53.1
Figure 6. If Remarried.Compared to most of my Peers, I Feel
H2: young adults of divorced families suffer depression.
For the second hypothesis, we tested it by asking the respondents to answer the question; do
they find it difficult to stay focused. We used this question to ascertain whether young adults
from the three families suffer depression. From our findings, 49% of respondents from divorced
families disagree, 24.5% strongly disagree, 18.4% agree and 8.2 % strongly agree. Respondents
from never divorced showed 44% disagree, 22% strongly disagree, 26% agree and 8% strongly
agree. Then 26.5% of the respondents for remarried disagree, 26.5% strongly disagree, 40.8%
agree and 6.1% strongly agree.
Figures 7, 8 and 9: Comparison of Depression of Respondents from Divorced,
Never Divorced and Remarried Families.
Disgaree Strongly
DisagreeAgree Strongly
Agree
49
24.518.4
8.2
Figure 7. If Divorced.I Find it Difficult to
Stay Focused.
disagree strongly
disagreeagree strongly
agree
44
22 268
Table 8. If never di-vorced.
I Find It Difficult to Stay Focused.
Disgaree Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
26.5 26.540.8
6.1
Figure 9. If Remarried.I Find it Diffcult to Stay Focused
H3: young adults of divorced families do have perception of loss.
We further examined the respondents on perception of loss by asking them to respond to a
question targeted to determine whether young adults from divorced, never divorced and
remarried families do have perception of loss when faced with life situation. The responses
gathered as indicated on the line graphs below show the differences among young adults from
the three families. Our findings indicated that 40.8% of young adults from divorced disagree,
42.9%, 42.9% were strongly disagree, 12.2% agree and 4.1 strongly agree. The same question
was used also to test whether young adults of never divorced families do have perception of loss.
The findings which are displayed on the line charts indicated that 57% of the respondents from
never divorced families disagree, 33.3% strongly disagree, 13.7% agree and 2.0% strongly agree.
It was further used to test respondents of remarried families, and their responses as indicated on
the line charts below show 37.4% disagree, 53.1% strongly disagree, 10.2% agree and 2%
strongly agree.
Figures 10, 11 and 12: Comparison of Perception of Loss of Respondents from
the Three Families
Disgaree Strongly Disagree
Agree Strongly Agree
40.8 42.9
12.24.1
Figure 10. If Divorced. I Feel Abandoned When Faced with Life Situations
disagree strongly disagree
agree strongly agree
57 33.3 13.7 2
Figure 11. If never di-vorced.
I Feel Abandoned When Faced with Life
Situations
disagree strongly disagree agree strongly agree
34.7
53.1
10.22
Figure 12. If Remarried.I Feel Abandoned When Faced with Life Situa-
tions
H4: remarriage helps young adults of remarried parents overcome psychological problems.
In this hypothesis, our focus is to ascertain the generalization that remarriage adjusts young adults
psychological well-being. As such, we tested this hypothesis by asking respondents of remarried families
to express their feelings towards their step-parents. The charts below described the percentage of their
responses on their feelings of whether they are satisfied or happy seeing their parents remarried. The
findings as shown on the charts below indicated that 31.1% of the young adults of the remarried families
disagree, 15.6% strongly disagree, 31.1% agree and 22.2% strongly agree. Figure 14 showed the
responses given were that 31.1% disagree, 15.6% strongly disagree, 40% agree and that 13.3% strongly
agree.
Figures 13 and 14: Showing Young Adults of Remarried Families’ Feelings
towards Their Remarried Parents.
Disgaree Strongly Disagree
Agree Strongly Agree
31.1
15.6
31.1
22.2
Figure 13. If Remar-ried.
I Think Parents Should Not Have
Remarried
Disgaree Strongly Disagree
Agree Strongly Agree
31.1
15.6
40
13.3
Figure 14. If Re-married.
I am Satisfied With Remarried Parents
Discussion and Conclusion
The sum of (N=150) surveys, age range of 19-21= (68.5%) responded and 22-24=
(31.5%) also answered the survey. 56% of the respondents were female, and 41.3% were male.
24.8% of the respondents were sophomore, 35.6% were junior. 85.3% of the respondents were
Black/African American, 3.3% were whites, 2.7% were Hispanics, 0.7% was Asians, and 8.0%
were others. Three family types that participated on the survey, 32.7% of the respondents were
from a divorced family, 33.3% were from a remarried family and 34% were from a never
divorced family.
Recent studies from the literature review indicated that parental divorce has a significant
impact on young adults’ psychological well-being, and that it also affects their social interaction
among their peers. Driven by this postulation, we tested our hypothesis 1 which targeted to
determine the question of whether young adults of divorced families suffer low self-esteem.
We asked the respondents from the three families that is divorced, never divorced and
remarried families to indicate their responses to the following questions on an ordinal or
interval/ratio measurement scale (1.compared to most of my peers, I feel. 2. Compared to most
of my peers, I often show off in public). The findings gathered show that 22.9% of young adults
of the divorced families agreed that they always show off in public, 15.7% of the respondents
from never divorced families agreed, while 16% of young adults of remarried families agreed
that they often show off in public. This finding is not statistically significant to the H1 which
stated that young adults from divorced families do suffer low self-esteem. With these findings, it
becomes clear that young adults of divorced families do show off in public just to internalize and
get rid of the feelings of being from a divorced family. This helps unveil the fact that young
adults of never divorced families are less likely to internalize problem of social interaction. We
also examined the general happiness of the respondents from the three families. The findings
revealed that 51% of the young adults of divorced families reported being happy, 72.5% of the
respondents from never divorced families reported of being happy, and 34.7% of the young
adults from remarried families indicated of being happy. By comparison, we uphold that young
adults from divorced and remarried families are less likely to be happy as compared to young
adults from never divorced families. Although, young adults of remarried families are more
likely to be unhappy, when compare to young adults from the rest of the three families.
Moreover, we tested our second hypothesis which was built on the question of whether
young adults of divorced families do suffer problem of depression compared to young adults
from never divorced and remarried families. We used the following question (I find it difficult to
stay focused) to test whether young adults from divorced families suffer depression when
compared to young adults of never divorced and remarried families. From the findings we
observed that 49% of the young adults of divorced disagreed, 44% of the respondents from never
divorced disagreed and 26.5% of the young adults of remarried families’ respondents disagreed
that they find it difficult to stay focused. This finding indicated that young adults of divorced
families are more likely to suffer depression relative to young adults from the other two family
categories. We examined our third hypothesis (H3= young adults of divorced families do have
perception of loss) in order to determine whether young adults from divorced families do have
perception of loss. We asked the respondents to indicate their responses on the question: I feel
abandon whenever I am faced life-situation. From the findings as shown in the descriptive
analysis, we observed that 40.8% of young adults from divorced families disagreed that they feel
abandoned when faced with life situation, 57% of the respondents from never divorced families
disagreed and 34.7% of remarried families also disagreed. These findings show that remarried
families are more likely to feel abandoned when dealing with life situation compared to young
adults from the other two family categories, and young adults from divorced families are less
likely feel abandoned when faced with life situation. Our fourth hypothesis is to test whether
remarriage helps young adults of remarried parents overcome psychological problems. To test the
hypothesis the respondents were stimulated to answer two of the following questions, the first question
sometimes I wish my parents should not have remarried and the second compared to most of my peers
whose parents are divorced but not remarried, I am more satisfied with my remarried parents. 31.1% of
the remarried family respondents agreed that they did not think their parents should have remarried and
40% of them agreed they were satisfied with their remarried parents compared to their peers whose
parents were divorced and not remarried. The findings of this hypothesis were that in certain situations
young adults from remarried families were less likely to wish their parents had remarried. Then those
young adults when tested as compared to the rest of their peers whose were divorced but not remarried
were more likely to be satisfied with their remarried parents. These findings are drawn based on
descriptive analysis; it does mean to say that further studies could be carried out.
APPENDIX A
Survey
Effects of Divorce on Young Adults, and the Dis-tinctions in the Psychological Well-being between Young Adults from Divorced and Non-Divorced
Families
Alabama State University
Researchers
Gunuboh Tamaraubibibogha M.
Shantel Grayson
This survey is completely voluntary. Please answer the questions as completely and truth-fully as possible. There is no right or wrong answers, and no one will know which answers are yours. If you should come to any question you do not want to answer, feel free to skip this question. You may also opt out of this survey at any time.
Section A: Demographics: In this section we ask you about yourself and background. Please
answer each question by placing an (X) in the most suitable box.
1. How old are you?
1. 19-21 2. 22-24
2. What is your gender?
1. Male 2. Female 3.Other
3. What is your classification?
1. Freshmen 2. Sophomore 3. Junior 4. Senior
4. What is your race?
1. Black/African American 2. White/Caucasian 3.Hispanic/Latino
4. Asian 5. Other
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
CODE:
ID:
5. What family are you from?
1. Divorced family 2. Never divorced family 3.Remarried family
Section B: Social, Emotion and Psychology Well-Being: In this section deals with the social and
psychological well-beings. Please answer each question by placing an (X) in the most suitable box.
6. Compared to most of my peers, I feel:
1. Not happy 2. Happy 3. Less happy 4. Very happy
1 2 3 4Disagree Strongly
DisagreeAgree Strongly
Agree
7. Compared to most of my peers, I often show off in public:
8. I am satisfied with my fam-ily:
9. find it difficult to stay fo-cused:
10. I often felt distant from my parents whenever I am close to them:
11. I do not think that the world is a good place for me:
12. I always like to be around/ spend time with my parents:
13. Which one of your parents do you love to be close to?
1. Mother 2. Father
14. I feel at home whenever I’m together with either of my parents:
1. Disagree 2.Strongly disagree 3. Agree 4. Strongly agree
15. I feel abandoned when faced with life situations:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3. Agree 4. Strongly agree
Section C: Psychological Adjustment: In this section, we ask questions about young adults’ experiences of
parental remarriage. Please answer each question by placing an (X) in the most suitable box.
16. Which parent do you usually feel more at home with?
1. Stepfather 2. Stepmother 3. Both 4. None
17. Sometimes, I wish my parents should not have remarried.
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3.Agree 4. Strongly agree
18. Living with my stepfather, I generally considered myself:
1. Unhappy 2. Happy 3. Less happy 4. Very happy
19. Living with my stepmother, I generally considered myself:
1. Unhappy 2. Happy 3. Less happy 4. Very happy
20. Compared to the rest of peers whose parents are divorced but not remarried, I am more satisfied with
my remarried parents:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3.Agree 4. Strongly agree
21. So far with my remarried families, I have gotten almost all desires in life:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3.Agree 4. Strongly agree
22. I often feel secured with my stepfather:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3.Agree 4. Strongly agree
23. I often feel secured with my stepmother:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3.Agree 4. Strongly agree
24. I always feel optimistic about my future:
1. Disagree 2. Strongly disagree 3. Agree 4. Strongly agree
End of Survey
Thank you!!!
Appendix B
CONSENT FORM
Consent to Participate in Research
Title of Study“The Effects of Divorce on Young Adults and Distinctions in the PsychologicalWell-being between Young Adults from Divorced and Non-Divorced Families”
Introduction and Purpose
My name is Gunuboh Tamaraubibibogha, and the name of my collaborator is Shantel Grayson.
We are undergraduates at Alabama State University working on our research in the Department
of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences. We would like to invite you to take part in our research
study, which concern is to examine divorce and its effects on young adults. It also focuses on un-
raveling the differences in the social and the psychological components of young adults from
both divorced and two-parent families. We recognize that children grow into adulthood by attain-
ing the age range of 19-24yearswith or without knowing that their encounter with parental di-
vorce may impact their psychological makeup. Therefore, we plead your cooperation to enable us
ascertain how best to tackle this problem.
ProceduresIf you agree to participate in this research, we will distribute a survey questionnaire to you which
you will fill and return to us as soon as it is completed. This survey should take no more than 30
minutes to complete. The information you provide in the questionnaire will be treated confiden-
tially and the data will be used to examine the proposed research question. If you do not wish to
continue, you can stop answering the survey at any time.
BenefitsYou will derive no immediate benefits for participating in this research.
Risks/DiscomfortsSome of the Research question may make you feels uncomfortable. You are free to decline an-
swering any questions. If a participant feels uncomfortable emotionally and psychologically in
the course of participating on the survey, they will be referred to the ASU counseling center at
C1.50 in the student center or contact 334-229-4382
Confidentiality
Your study data will be handled as confidentially as possible. If results of this study are pub-
lished or presented, individual names must not be filled and other personally identifiable informa-
tion will not be leaked and must be destroyed after the study.
CompensationYou will not be paid for taking part in this study.
RightsParticipation in research is completely voluntary. You are free to decline to take part in the
project. You can decline to answer any questions and are free to stop taking part in the project at
any time. Whether or not you choose to participate in the research and whether or not you choose
to answer a question or continue participating in the project, there will be no penalty to you or
loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.
QuestionsIf you have any questions about this research, please feel free to contact us. We can be reached at
334-414-7467/[email protected] or 678-697-0324/[email protected]
If you have any questions about your rights or treatment as a research participant in this study,
please contact the IRB chair Dr. Tyson Platt at [email protected] (334 229 5176) or our Advisor Dr.
Brenda Gill (334 229 4488 or [email protected]
************************************************************
If you wish to participate in this study, please sign and date below.
_____________________________Participant's Name (please print)
____________________________________________Participant's Signature Date
[Optional/If applicable]If you agree to allow your name or other identifying information to be included in all final re-ports, publications, and/or presentations resulting from this research, please sign and date below.
____________________________________________ Participant's Signature Date
Appendix C
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Dagenais-Desmarais, V., & Savoie, A. (2012). What is Psychological Well-Being, Really? A
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