Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:09:17.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shared or conflicting working models? Relationships in postdivorce families seen through the eyes of mothers and their preschool children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2004

INGE BRETHERTON  and
TIMOTHY F. PAGE
INGE BRETHERTON
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison
TIMOTHY F. PAGE
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Marvin and Stewart and Byng–Hall proposed that effective family collaboration requires family members to construct “shared family working models,” and that the renegotiation of these working models during family transitions is facilitated by family members' “interactional awareness” (ability to be perceptive observers of family relationships). We apply these constructs to data collected from 71 mothers and their 4.5- to 5.0-year-old preschool children, 2 years after parental divorce. Maternal representations of the father as coparent and ex-spouse, and of father– and mother–child relationships were assessed via two interviews. A family story completion task captured child representations of mother–child and father–child, coparental and ex-spousal interactions. Maternal accounts of mother–child conversations illustrated the negotiation of shared working models. Primarily qualitative analyses contrasting maternal and child perspectives are presented in the first section. Then we use regression analyses to predict children's story themes from maternal representations of flexible, sensitive, and effective discipline-related interactions; maternal depressive symptoms; and perception of the child's father. Finally, we identify gender differences in children's enactments of divorce-related and child-empathy themes. We conclude by considering how our findings could be used to assist postdivorce families in constructing shared rather than conflicting working models of family relations.This research was funded by Grant R01 HD267766 awarded to the first author by the NICHD. Additional support was received from the University of Wisconsin Graduate School Research Committee, the Waisman Center, and the Vilas Trust. We express our deep appreciation to the mothers and children who participated in this study. We also thank Barbara Golby, Angel Gullon–Rivera, Patti Herman, Chris Halvorsen, Vicky Lenzlinger, Kristine Munholland, Reghan Walsh, and Laura Winn for assisting with data collection and analysis and acknowledge helpful advice from John Byng–Hall, Robert Emery, Paul Amato, and Daniel Veroff.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 551 - 575
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Amato, P. R. (2001). Children of divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis. Journal of Family Psychology 15, 355–370.Google Scholar
Amato, P. R., & Booth, A. (1997). A generation at risk. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 110, 26–46.Google Scholar
Arendell, T. (1995). Fathers after divorce. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bateson, G., Jackson, D. D., Haley, J., & Weakland, J. (1956). Toward a theory of schizophrenia. Behavioral Sciences 1, 251–264.Google Scholar
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monographs 4, 1–103.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Beck, A. T., & Beamesderfer, A. (1974). Assessment of depression: The depression inventory. In P. Pichot (Ed.), Psychological measurements in psychopharmacology: Modern problems in pharmacopsychiatry (vol. 7, pp. 151–169). New York: S. Karger.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. II. Separation: Anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. III. Loss: Sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books.
Boszormenyi–Nagi, I., & Spark, G. M. (1973). Invisible loyalties: Reciprocity in intergenerational family therapy. New York: Harper & Row.
Bretherton, I. (1990). Open communication and internal working models: Their role in the development of attachment relationships. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.). Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 36. Socioemotional development (pp. 59–113). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Bretherton, I., Biringen, Z., & Ridgeway, D. (1989). Parent attachment interview. Unpublished manuscript, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Bretherton, I., Biringen, Z., Ridgeway, D., Maslin, C., & Sherman, M. (1989). Attachment: The parental perspective. Infant Mental Health Journal 10, 203–221.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I., Golby, B., & Cho, E. (1997). Attachment and the transmission of values. In J. Grusec & L. Kucszynski (Eds.). Parenting and children's internalization of values (pp. 103–134). New York: Wiley.
Bretherton, I., & Oppenheim, D. (2003). The MacArthur Story Stem Battery: Development, directions for administration, reliability, validity and reflections about meaning. In R. N. Emde, D. P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim (Eds.), Revealing the inner world of young children: The MacArthur Story Stem Battery (pp. 55–80). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bretherton, I., Oppenheim, D., Buchsbaum, H., Emde, R. N., & The MacArthur Narrative Group (1990/2003). The MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In R. N. Emde, D. P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim (Eds.), Revealing the inner world of young children: The MacArthur Story Stem Battery (pp. 381–396). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bretherton, I., Prentiss, C., & Ridgeway, D. (1990). Children's representations of family relationships in a story completion task at 37 and 54 months. In I. Bretherton & M. Watson (Eds.), Children's perspectives on the family. New directions in child development series (Vol. 48, pp. 85–105). San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.
Bretherton, I., & Ridgeway, D. (1990). Story completion task to assess young children's internal working models of child and parents in the attachment relationship. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 300–308). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D., & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing the internal working models of the attachment relationship: An attachment story completion task for 3-year-olds. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 273–308). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bretherton, I., Walsh, R., & Lependorf, M. (1996). Social support in postdivorce families: An attachment perspective. In G. Pierce, B. Sarason, & I. Sarason (Eds.), Handbook of social support and families (pp. 345–373). New York: Plenum Press.
Bretherton, I., Walsh, R., Lependorf, M., & Georgeson, H. (1997). Attachment networks in postdivorce families: The maternal perspective. In L. Atkinson & K. J. Zucker (Eds.), Attachment and psychopathology (pp. 97–134). New York: Plenum Press.
Byng–Hall, J. (1995). Rewriting family scripts. New York: Guilford Press.
Byng–Hall, J. (1999). Family and couple therapy: Towards greater security. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment (pp. 625–645). New York: Guilford Press.
Byng–Hall, J. (2001). Relieving parentified children's burdens in families with insecure attachment patterns. Family Process 41, 375–389.Google Scholar
Camara, K. A., & Resnick, G. (1988). Interparental conflict and cooperation: Factors moderating children's post-divorce adjustment. In E. M. Hetherington & J. S. Arasteh (Eds.), Impact of divorce, single parenting, and stepparenting on children (pp. 169–195). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cassidy, J. (1988). Child–mother attachment and the self in six-year-olds. Child Development 59, 121–134.Google Scholar
Cochran, M., Larner, M., Riley, D., Gunnarsson, L., & Henderson, C. R. (1990). Extending families. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cowan, P. A., Cohn, C. A., Cowan, C. P., & Pearson, J. L. (1996). Parents' attachment histories and children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors: Exploring family systems models of linkage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, 53–63.Google Scholar
Cox, M., & Paley, B. (1997). Families as systems. Annual Review of Psychology 48, 243–267.Google Scholar
Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (1994). Children and marital conflict: The impact of family dispute and resolution. New York: Guildford Press.
Davies, P. T., Harold, G. T., Goeke–Morey, M. C., & Cummings, M. C. (2002). Child emotional security and interparental conflict. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 67(3, Serial No. 270).Google Scholar
Dix, T. (1992). Parenting on behalf of the child: Empathic goals in the regulation of responsive parenting. In I. E. Sigel, A. V. McGillicuddy, & J. Goodnow (Eds.), Parental belief systems (pp. 319–346). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Emery, R. (1999). Marriage, divorce, and children's adjustment (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Emery, R. E. (1994). Renegotiating family relationships: Divorce, custody, and mediation. New York: Guilford Press.
Emery, R. E., Laumann–Billings, L., Waldron, M. C., Sbarra, D. A., & Dillon, P. (2001). Child custody mediation and litigation: Custody, contact, and coparenting 12 years after initial dispute resolution. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 69, 323–332.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, M., Steele, H., Moran, G., & Higgitt, A. (1991). The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal 12, 201–218.Google Scholar
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
Gloger–Tippelt, G., Gomille, B., Koenig, L., & Vetter, J. (2002). Attachment representations in 6 year olds: Related longitudinally to quality of attachment in infancy and mothers' attachment representations. Attachment and Human Development 4, 318–339.Google Scholar
Golby, B. J., & Bretherton, I. (1999). Resilience in postdivorce mother–child relationships. In H. M. McCubbin, E. A. Thompson, A. I. Thompson, & J. Futrell (Eds.). The dynamics of resilient families (pp. 237–265). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. C. (1992). Marital conflict and children's adjustment: A cognitive-developmental framework. Psychological Bulletin 108, 267–290.Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. C. (1997). Children's adaptation to divorce: From description to explanation. In S. A. Wolchik & I. N. Sandler (Eds.), Handbook of children's coping: Linking theory and intervention (pp. 159–193). New York: Plenum Press.
Herman, P., & Bretherton, I. (2001). “He was the best Daddy”: Postdivorce preschoolers' representations of loss and family Life. In A. Gonçü & E. Klein (Ed.), Children in play, story, and school (pp. 177–203). New York: Guilford Press.
Hetherington, E. M. (1989). Coping with family transitions: Winners, losers, and survivors. Child Development 60, 1–14.Google Scholar
Hetherington, E. M., & Kelly, J. (2002). For better or for worse: Divorce reconsidered. New York: Norton.
Hetherington, E.M., Cox, M., & Cox, R. (1982). Effects of divorce on parents and children. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Nontraditional families: Parenting and child development (pp. 233–288). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1978). The Four-Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript. Yale University.
Huber, D. L. (2003). Teaching divorcing parents to encapsulate their conflicts: The development, field testing, and evaluation of an experimental curriculum. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Jurkovic, Gregory J. (1997). Lost childhoods: The plight of the parentified child. New York: Brunner–Mazel.
Laumann–Billings, L., & Emery, R. E. (2000). Distress among young adults from divorced families. Journal of Family Psychology 14, 671–687.Google Scholar
Maccoby, E. E., & Mnookin, R. H. (1992). Dividing the child: Social and legal dilemmas of custody. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
MacDonald, J. C. (2004). Collaborative family practice. Retrieved from http://www.familylawcentre.com/macdonald.html, February 1, 2004.
Main, M., Kaplan, K., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 50(1–2, Serial No. 209), 66–104.Google Scholar
Marvin, R. S., & Stewart, R. B. (1990). A family systems framework for the study of attachment. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 51–86). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Miljkovitch, R., Pierrehumbert, P., Bretherton, I., & Halfon, O. (in press). Intergenerational transmission of attachment representations. Attachment and human development.
Minuchin, P. (1985). Families and individual development: Provocations from the field of family therapy. Child Development 56, 289–302.Google Scholar
Murray, L., Woolgar, M., Briers, S., & Hipwell, A. (1999). Children's social representations in dolls' house play and theory of mind tasks, and their relation to family adversity and child disturbance. Social Development 8, 179–200.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, D. (2003). Children's emotional resolution of MSSB narratives: Relations with child behavior problems and parental psychological distress. In R. N. Emde, D. P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim (Eds). Revealing the inner world of young children (pp. 147–162). New York: Oxford University Press.
Oppenheim, D., Emde, R. N., & Warren, S. L. (1997). Children's narrative representation of mothers: Their development and association with child and mother adaptation. Child Development 68, 127–138.Google Scholar
Page, T., & Bretherton, I. (1993). Manual for coding the expanded attachment story completion task adapted for children of divorce. Unpublished manuscript, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Page, T., & Bretherton, I. (2001). Mother– and father–child attachment themes in the story completions of preschoolers from postdivorce families: Do they predict relationships with peers and teachers? Attachment and Human Development, 3, 1–29.Google Scholar
Page, T., & Bretherton, I. (2003a). Representations of attachment to father in the narratives of preschool girls in post-divorce families: Implications for family relationships and social development. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 20, 99–122.Google Scholar
Page, T., & Bretherton, I. (2003b). Gender differences in stories of violence and caring by preschool children in post-divorce families: Implications for social competence. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 20, 485–508.Google Scholar
Solomon, J., George, C., & De Jong, A. (1995). Children classified as controlling at age six: Evidence of disorganized representational strategies and aggression at home and at school. Development and Psychopathology 7, 447–464.Google Scholar
Steele, M., Steele, H., Woolgar, M., Yabsley, S., Fonagy, P., Johnson, D., & Croft, C. (2003). An attachment perspective on children's emotion narratives. In R. N. Emde, D. P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim (Eds.), Revealing the inner world of young children (pp. 163–181). New York: Oxford University Press.
Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Toth, S. L., Cicchetti, D., MacFie, J., & Emde, R. (1997). Representations of self and other in the narratives of neglected, physically abused, and sexually abused preschoolers. Development and Psychopathology 9, 781–796.Google Scholar
Toth, S. L., Cicchetti, D., Macfie, J., Maughan, A., & VanMeenan, K. (2000). Narrative representations of caregivers and self in maltreated preschoolers. Attachment and Human Development 2, 271–305.Google Scholar
Toth, S. L., Maughan, A., Manly, J. T., Spagnola, M., & Cicchetti, D. (2002). The relative efficacy of two interventions in alterning maltreated preschool children's representational models: Implications for attachment theory. Development and Psychopathology 14, 877–908.Google Scholar
US Bureau of the Census. (1999). Statistical abstracts of the United States: The national data book. Retrieved February 22, 2004, from http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/99statab/sec02/pdf.
Van IJzendoorn, M. (1995). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin 117, 387–403.Google Scholar
Verschueren, K., Marcoen, A., & Schoefs, V. (1996). The internal working model of the self, attachment and competence in 5-year-olds. Child Development 67, 2493–2511.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1975). The effects of parental divorce: Experiences of the preschool child. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 14, 600–616.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, J. S., Lewis, J., & Blakeslee, S. (2000). The unexpected legacy of divorce: A 25 year landmark study. New York: Hyperion.
Waters, H., Rodrigues, L. M., & Ridgeway, D. (1998). Cognitive underpinnings of narrative attachment assessment, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 71, 211–235.Google Scholar
Wynne, L.C., Ryckoff, I. M., Day, J., & Hirsch, S. I. (1958). Pseudomutuality in the family relations of schizophrenics. Psychiatry 21, 205–220.Google Scholar
Zahn–Waxler, C., Cole, P. M., Richardson, D. T., Friedman, R. J., Michel, M. K., & Belouad, F. (1994). Social problem solving in disruptive preschool children: Reactions to hypothetical situations of conflict and distress. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly 40, 98–119.Google Scholar