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Psychological

Bulletin

1991, Vol. 110, No.1,26-46

Copyright 1991 by the

American Psychological

Association Inc.

0033-2909/91/J3.00

Parental

Divorce

and theWeil-BeingofChildren:A Meta-Analysis

Paul R.Amato

Department of Sociology

University

of

NebraskaLincoln

Bruce Keith

Department of Sociology

WestVirginia University

This

meta-analysis

involved

92 studies

that

comparedchildrenliving in

divorced

single-parent

families

withchildren

living

in continuouslyintact

families

on measures of well-being. Children of

divorcescoredlowerthanchildren inintactfamiliesacrossa varietyofoutcomes,withthemedian

effectsizebeing.

14

ofastandarddeviation.For someoutcomes,

methodologically

sophisticated

studies yieldedweaker

effect

sizes thandid

otherstudies.

In

addition,

forsome outcomes,

more

recentstudiesyieldedweakereffectsizes

than did

studies

carried

out

during

earlier

decades.

Some

support

wasfoundfor

theoretical

perspectives

emphasizing

parental absenceandeconomic disad-

vantage, but themost

consistent

supportwas found for afamilyconflictperspective.

Thenumberofchildren affected bydivorcehas increased

dramatically since the 1950s. Currently,everyyear more than 1

million children in the United States experience the divorce of

their parents

(US.

Bureau of theCensus,

1989,

p.

87).

Projec-

tions indicate that

38% of

White children

and 75% of

Black

children born

to

marriedparents

will

experience parental

di-

vorce

beforethey reach

the

age of

16

(Bumpass, 1984).

The

large

number ofchildrenaffected bymarital disruption hasgener-

ated both public andscientificconcern over the consequences

ofdivorceforchildren's developmentandwell-being.

Numerous studies

have

examined the implications of paren-

tal

divorce

for

children'sscholasticachievement, conduct, psy-

chological adjustment,

serf-esteem,

social competence,andre-

lationships

with

parents. Many studies

have

foundthat children

from

divorced

families

experience lower levels

of

well-being

across these domains than do children

from

intact families.

However,a good deal of inconsistency exists inthisliterature,

and

many

studies

have failed

to find significant

differences.

In

addition, studies have varied substantially both in their method-

ologies and in thecharacteristics,such as age level and social

class, of the childrenstudied.

This literature has been reviewed in a qualitative

fashion

by

Blechman

(1982),Emery(1982),Goetting

(1981),

Hetherington

(1979), Kurdek

(1981,1983),

and Longfellow (1979), andmore

recentlybyDemoandAcock

(1988),

Edwards

(1987),

Emery

(1988),Hetheringtonand Camara(1984,1988), and Krantz

(1988).Giventheoften contradictory natureofmuchofthis

research,

it is not

surprising that

reviewers

have

sometimes

reached discrepant conclusions. For example, Edwards

(1987)

suggested

that most children recoverfromdivorce with

few

enduringnegative consequences. In contrast, Krantz (1988)

warned

that the

psychosocial adjustment

of

children

of

divorce

Thisresearch was

supported

by a grant from the

University

of Ne-

braskaLincoln

Research Council.

Correspondence concerning this

article

should

be addressed to

Paul

R.

Amato,

Department of Sociology,

University

ofNebraska,Lincoln,

Nebraska 68508-0324.

is at risk. The middle ground was taken by Emery (1988), who

acknowledged that divorce isassociatedwith a numberofnega-

tivechildoutcomes but concludedthatchildren withserious

problems are not markedly overrepresented among divorced

families(p.

70).

Finally,Demo and Acock (1988) found an in-

creasedlikelihood of certain problems for children of divorce

but argued that methodological limitations make itdifficultto

draw

firm conclusions. Overall, reviewers

have

reached quite

differentconclusions

after

examining similarsetsofstudies.

Althoughmany qualitative reviews ofthisliteratureexist,a

meta-analysis has not yet been attempted.\et,asufficientnum-

ber of studies exists atthistime to

justify

a quantitative

review.

Webelieve that a meta-analysis has thepotentialto bring some

order to an otherwise

confused

and contradictory body of find-

ings.

Accordingly,

our first purpose is to estimate the impact of

parental divorce on child well-beingacrossall availablestudies.

This allows us to answer three questions: (a) How large are the

differencesbetween children in divorced andintact

families

on

measures

of

well-being?

(b) Are

thesepooled

differences

statis-

ticallysignificant?

and (c) Are

thesedifferenceslarger

for

some

outcomes thanforothers?

Our meta-analysis has two

further

purposes.The magnitude

of

estimated

effectsmay

varysystematically with studyattrib-

utes, such as the type of analysis used and the nature of the

sample. Consequently, we use meta-analytic techniques to

search

forstudy characteristics

that

account forvariation in

effect

sizes. Our final purpose is to consider the cumulative

evidence

across all available studies for three theoretical

per-

spectives on theeffectsofdivorceonchildren. Each perspective

suggests a number of hypotheses. We

assess

the degree of

sup-

port

for

these hypotheses and,

when

possible,

use

meta-analytic

techniques to combinedataacross studies for this purpose.

Theoretical Considerations

Anumber

of

explanations

and

intervening processes have

been proposedtoaccountfor whydivorce mighthavenegative

effectson

children's

lives

(see Kalter, Kloner, Schreier,

&

Okla,

1989, andMcLanahan,1985,1989, fordiscussions). However,

26


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PARENTAL

DIVORCE AND CHILD WELL-BEING

27

most explanationsfocuson three central notions: parental

ab-

sence, economic disadvantage,

andfamily

conflict.

Parental

Absence

Perspective

Thefamilyis the key

social institution

for

providing

the nur-

turant

socialization

of

youngchildren.Traditionally,ithas been

assumed thatthetwo-parent

family (with

both parents livingin

the same household as the child) is a

better

environment for

children's developmentthanthe single-parentfamily.Accord-

ingly,

the

presumed negativeeffects

of

divorce

areoften

attrib-

utedtosocialization

deficits

thatresultfromgrowingupwith

one parent rather than two.Thisnotion has been criticized for

emphasizingfamilystructureat theexpenseoffamilyprocess

and for

being politically conservative (Marotz-Baden, Adams,

Buech, Munro, & Munro, 1979;

Scanzoni,

Polonko,Teachman,

&Thompson,

1989).

Nevertheless, this perspective

isbasedon

a straightforward principle: If parents are important resources

for childrenlsdevelopment,then,allthings being equal,two

parents should

be

betterthanone.

Itis

well

known that divorce is associated with a

decrease

in

the

quantity

and

quality

ofcontact

between

childrenand

their

noncustodial parent(Amato,1987; Furstenburg&Nord,1985;

White,

Brinkerhoff,

&

Booth,1985).Also, because

most

custo-

dial parents are in the laborforce,they are constrained in the

amountof time andenergy theycan devote to their children

(Brandwein,

Brown,&Fox,1974). Forthesereasons,children

of

divorce

often

experience

a

decrease

in

parental attention,

help, and supervision. This decline in parental support may

increase the likelihood of problems, such as academic failure,

lowself-esteem,

and

misbehavior (Rollins

&

Thomas,

1979).In

addition, the lack of parental models in the household may

result

in

the inadequate learning

of

social skills (such as cooper-

ating,negotiating,andcompromising) necessaryforsuccessin

the larger world.

A

focuson

parental

absence leadsto thefollowinghypothe-

ses. First, children

who

experience

the

death

of a

parent

(or the

lossof aparent

for

anyotherreason)exhibit problems similarto

those of children who experience parental divorce. Second, be-

cause a stepparent can provide an alternative role model and

source of

support, children

of

divorce

havefewer

problems

if

the custodial parent remarries than if the custodial parent re-

mains

single. Third, this perspective suggests that the

disrup-

tive

effectsoflivingin asingle-parent

family

arepartly miti-

gated if noncustodial parents maintain close relationships with

their children. This leads to the hypothesis that thefrequency

andqualityofcontactwiththenoncustodial parentispositively

associated

with

children's well-being.

EconomicDisadvantagePerspective

A

second perspective

is

based

on the

notion

of

economic

disadvantage. Divorce typically leadsto adeclinein thestan-

dard

of

living

of

mother-headedfamilies,oftenpushing them

below poverty level(Duncan &

Hoffman,

1985;Weitzman,

1985).This perspective assumes that it is economic hardship,

ratherthanfamilytypeassuch,thatisresponsiblefor thelow-

ered well-being of children of divorce.

Alack

of

economic resources increases

the

risk

of a

number

of developmental problems in children. Economic hardship

may

negativelyaffectchildren's nutrition

and

health (Williams,

1990).In addition, poor single mothers are unable to afford

private

lessons, educational toys, books, home computers, and

other goods that facilitate children's academic success. Limited

means

may

alsoforcefamilies

to

live

in

neighborhoods

in

which

school programs

are

poorlyfinanced

and

services

are

inade-

quate (McLanahan, 1989). Furthermore,

living

inpovertymay

be

stigmatizing

for

children

and may

facilitate

the

entry

of

ado-

lescents into deviant subcultures(\foydanoff

&Majka,

1988).

Because the economic disadvantage perspective holds that

the problems observed in children of divorce are due primarily

to the loss of income experienced by custodial mothers, it fol-

lows

thatfewdifferencesshouldbeobserved between children

from divorced and intact families if income is controlled statis-

tically,

or if

families

are

matched

on

income level. This

perspec-

tive also leads to the hypothesis that the well-being of children

ofdivorceisenhancedifcustodial mothersremarry,because

this usuallyresults inimprovementsinfinancialstatus. (Note

that this hypothesis is also predicted by the parental absence

perspective)Finally,this perspective suggests the hypothesis

thatchildrenexperience

fewer

problems

if

fathersratherthan

mothershavecustody, becausefathersgenerally earn morein-

come than do mothers.

FamilyConflict Perspective

The third perspective assumes that

conflict

between parents

beforeandduringtheseparation periodis asevere

stressor

for

children.

Interparental

hostility creates an

aversive

homeenvi-

ronment inwhichchildren experiencestress,unhappiness, and

insecurity

(Maccoby&

Martin,

1983).

Obviously, such

an

envi-

ronmentisless than optimalfor thedevelopmentofchildren.

Infact,numerous studies have indicated that

interparental

con-

flict

in

intact marriages has anegative impact on children's

psychologicaladjustment(seeEmery, 1982,

for a

review).Con-

flict is

also

likelyto

stress parents

and

make them lesseffective

indealingwiththeir children

(Hetherington,

Cox,

&Cox,

1982;

Wallerstein

&Kelly,1980). Otherstudiesshow that children

tend to be drawn into

conflict

between theirparents,resulting

infurther

deteriorations in

parent-child

relationships (Amato,

1986;Johnston, Kline,&

Tschann,

1989). Accordingto this

perspective, children

of

divorce exhibit problems,

not

because

of thechangeinfamilystructure,butbecauseof theaccom-

panying

conflict.

Theconflictperspective leads to the hypothesis that children

inintactfamilieswith high levelsofinterparental conflictex-

hibitproblems similar to those of children of divorce. Indeed,

thisperspective suggests that children in harmonious single-

parent

families

may be better adjusted than children in high-

conflictintactfamilies.Asecond hypothesis thatfollowsfrom

this perspective

is

that

the

adjustment

of

children

of

divorce

improveswiththe passage of time since marital dissolution.

The assumption here is that if poor childadjustmentis a reac-

tion to marital discord, then children'sfunctioningshould re-

cover aslevelsofconflict

subside.

Of

course,

in

some cases,

conflictbetween parentsmaycontinueafterthedivorce,partic-

ularlyin relation to

visitation

and the

payment

of

child support.

This leads to a third hypothesis: Children's well-being is in-


3/21

28

PAULR.

AMATO

AND

BRUCE

KEITH

veisely correlated with the level ofpostdivorceconflict that

persistsbetween

parents.

Method

Selection

of

Studies

Studies

were

located through manual searchesat

Psychological

Ab-

stracts, Sociological Abstracts,andtheSoda/SciCTiws/mfec.-computer-

ized

data

bases and the reference sections of reviewarticleswere also

used.

Eachstudy

had to

meet

four

criteriabefore

it was

included

in the

meta-analysis.First, studies

had to

contain

a

sample

of

children living

insingle-parentfamilies

formed

through divorce

or

separation

as

well

as a

sample

of

children fromcontinuously intact

families. A

second

criterionrequiredthe presence of atleastonequantitative measureof

well-being, including scores on tests or scales, ratings, or percentages

inoutcome categories. Third, datafromeachstudyhadtobe presented

ina

formthat allowed

for the

calculation

of at

least

one

effect size.

Fourth, thestudyhad toinvolvechildren; studies that dealt with adult

children of divorcewereset aside for a separate review.(Studies of

college studentswereincluded in this analysis, however). Ninety-two

studies

wereidentifiedthat met these criteria (see the Appendix for a

complete listing); collectively, these studies

involved over

13,000

chil-

dren.

Calculationof Effect

Sizes

We

calculatedeffectsizes

in

severalways.

The

most direct method

of

calculationinvolved

subtracting

themeanscore on the dependent vari-

able

for

theintact samplefromthatof the divorcedsampleand dividing

this

difference

by thepooled whhin-group standard deviation.Often,

meansand

standard deviationswereunavailable

to the reader. In

such

instances,tvalues,Fratios, and correlation coefficientswere

trans-

formedintoeffectsizes, usingthe formulasprovidedbyHedgesand

Olkin (1985).Likewise, percentagedifferences weretranslated into

effect

sizes

by

means

of the

probit

transformation

described

byGlass,

McGaw,

and

Smith (1981). Occasionally,

only

probability values were

reported,so weestimated (valuesfromastandard tablebymatching

the

degrees

of

freedomwith

the

givensignificancelevel. Studies com-

monly

dispatched

with

nonsignificant

findings

early

in a

discussion

of

the results. Becausenonsignificantfindings are as important in a

meta-analysisasthosefoundto be significant, weestimatedthe

effect

sizes in these cases by assuming apvalue of .5. Because all of these

methods produce slight overestimates

of theeffect

size

when the

sam-

ple sizeis small, weusedthe correctionproposedby Hedges and Olkin

(1985) tocalculatetheunbiased estimator. Signs wereaffixedto effect

sizes to reflect the comparativewell-beingof the groups. A negative

signindicatedalowerlevel ofwell-beingforchildrenin thedivorced

group than forthose in the intactgroup;apositive signindicated the

r v rs

We

calculated separateeffectsizes

for

each independent sample in

a

study.

Independent samples existed

when

data were reported sepa-

ratelyforsubgroups

of

children, such

as

boys

and

girls. Altogether,

the

92studies reporteddataon113independent samples. In

most studies,

more than one dependent variable was

used.

Because significance

testsrequirethateffectsizesbeindependent,if two ormoreeffectsizes

were

generated withinthesame outcome category(asdefinedin the

followingparagraph),

the

mean

of

these

was

taken.

In

afewcases,

two

ormorearticles

were

based on the same

data

set; these were treatedasa

single

study in our analysis. In other cases, multiple reports described a

longitudinal

study of the same sample. In these

cases,

we relied on the

publicationthatpresented the most detailedinformation

for

the calcu-

lationof

effect

sizes.Forexample,for thelongitudinal studybyHether-

ington,Cox,andCox,we relied mainly ontheir 1985 publication.In

this way, each independent sample

was

represented onlyonce

in the

meta-analysisfor anyparticular outcome.

Distinctions

can be drawn between two

types

ofeffectsizes, de-

pendingon the nature of the analysisreported. First,it ispossiblefor

effectsizes to be based on the unadjusted,zero-order

differences

be-

tween

intact

and

divorced groups; theseeffect sizes

reflect thetotal

covariationbetween parental divorce and the outcome. Some of

this

covariance may be

causal

and some may be

spurious.

Second, many

studies

adjustthe covariance

forcharacteristics

such as parental educa-

tion,familyincome, andfamilysize.

Similarly;

it is possible to match

children in divorced and

intactfamily

groups on these

variables.Effect

sizes

calculated

on

thisbasis

reflect the

estimated

direct

effect

of

paren-

tal divorce on the child's well-being,afteradjustments are made for

control variables.

If the

control variables

are

ones that precede both

divorce

and

children's outcomes (such

asparental

education),

the re-

sulting

effect

size reflects the

estimated

totaleffectof divorce on

chil-

dren. On the other hand, if the control variables

follow

divorce(suchas

household income), theresultingeffectsize is likely to be an underesti-

mate

of

the

total

effectof

divorce.

Because

of the

clear

differencein

interpretation betweeneffectsizes

with

and without controls, we calculated each separatelywhenboth

adjustedand unadjusted resultswereprovided in astudy.However,

because only a minority of studies used control variables (or matching

of subjects),and becausemanyofthese studiesmixed

pre-

andpostdi-

vorce controls in analyses, we lumped alleffect

sizes

basedonany

controls inthesame category. Consequently, thereadershould beaware

that thereissome ambiguityin theinterpretationof theresultingeffect

sizes.

Variables

Wecoded outcome measures into the following eight

categories:

(a)

academic achievement (standardized achievement tests, grades,

teachers'

ratings, orintelligence) ;(b)conduct (misbehavior, aggression,

ordelinquency);(c)psychological adjustment (depression,anxiety, or

happiness);

(d)

self-concept

(self-esteem,

perceivedcompetence,

or in-

ternal

locus of control); (e) social adjustment (popularity,

loneliness,

or

cooperativeness);(f)

mother-childrelations(affection,

help,

or

quality

ofinteraction); (g)

father-child

relations; and

(h)

other. The categories

reflectthe outcomes most

frequently

studied in relation to divorce and

are

the ones usually discussed in reviews of this literature.

Because one purpose of this study was to searchforsources of varia-

tion ineffectsizes between studies, we coded a variety of studycharac-

teristics.Severalreviewershave pointed

out the

methodological limita-

tions of much of the research onthistopic, including reliance on small

convenience or clinical samples, the use ofpsychometricallyweak

measuresofchild outcomes, and thefailureto control

for

confounding

family-of-origincharacteristics, such associalclass(Blechman,1982;

Demo & Acock, 1988; Emery, 1988; Kurdek,1983).Given thediffer-

ences

in

methodological sophistication between studies,

we recorded

information

on the

following

variables: the type of sample

used

(clini-

cal, convenience, or random sample); the sample size; the use

of single-

versus multiple-item measures of outcomes; and whetherstatistical

controls

(or

matching

of

subjects)wereused.

As an

exploratory mea-

sure,

we also considered the source ofinformationon childoutcomes:

child, parent, teacher, researcher,

or

other

(in

general,

the researcher

categoryrefers tobehavioral observations, whereasthe first 3catego-

ries arebasedon questionnaire on test responses).

Wealso included variables that reflect substantive characteristics of

the sample. The sex of the sample (all boys, all girls, or mixed) was

recorded

because

of the

current interest

in sex

differences

inchildren's

adjustment

to

divorce(Zaslow,1988, 1989). Because differences

in

children's reactions to divorce depending on the age of the childhave

been

reported(e*,

Wallerstein

&Kelly,1980), we included the mean


4/21

PARENTALDIVORCE AND CHILD WELL-BEING

29

age of children in thesample.Longitudinal studieshave shown

that

the

effects

of divorce tend todiminish

with

time

(e.g.,

Hetherington etal.,

1982).For this reason, we recorded the mean number of years since

separationforchildren in the sample.(Unfortunately,thisinformation

was

provided

in

only

40% of

studies.)

We

included

the

year

in

which

datawerecollected to see ifeffectsizes vary over time. If the authors

did not statewhenthedatawere collected, we assumed it was 2 years

before

the

year

of

publication. Finally,

the

country

in

which

the

study

was conducted was recorded for exploratorypurposes.

Wealsoattempted to

code

the race of the sample (Black, White, or

mixed).

But as it

turned out,onlyfivestudies included data

on all

Black

samples. As a result, comparisons between White and Blacksamples,

although

of

considerable interest, were impossible to carry out.Wecan

only

conclude that too little research has been conducted on the impli-

cationsofdivorceforBlack children.Giventhatthe rate ofseparation

and

divorce

is

considerably higher

for

Blacks thanforWhites(Walker,

1988),thisomission

is

surprising.

1

Reliability

Although

the

coding

of

most variables

was straightforward, the

clas-

sification

of outcomes into categories leftsome room for disagree-

ment. Consequently, we performed a reliability check in

which

each of

us independently classified 80 outcomes. TheresultingCohen's kappa

value

was .84

(p

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metaanaliza povezanosti razvoda i blagostanja dece