J ournal of Clinical Child Psychology 1985, VoI.14,No.

1,20-26

Copyright 1985 by

Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates, Inc.

Perceived Competence, Self-Esteem, and Anxiety in Latency-Aged Children of Divorce

Peter A. Wyman, Emory L. Cowen, A. Dirk Hightower, and JoAnne L. Pedro-Carroll

University of Rochester

Ninety-eight 9-12 year-old children from divorced families were compared to 170 demographically similar children from intact families on measures of perceived competence, self-worth, anxiety, and sources of support. Children of divorce had lower perceived cognitive competence, higher anxiety, and fewer potential sources of social support. For both groups there were low-level associations between sources of support and adjustment. The implications of the findings for further research and for preventive programming for children of divorce are considered.

Key words: divorce, perceived competence, self-esteem, anxiety

Rates of divorce in the United States have doubled since 1970 and tripled since 1960 (Report of the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, 1983). This means that more than 3 million new people are affected by the stressful event of marital disruption each year. The continuing dramatic increase in divorce rates has stimulated intensive study of the psychological effects of that stressful event. Bloom, Asher, and White's (1978) comprehensive review, for example, demonstrated powerful associations for adults between divorce and a broad range of negative physical and psychological indicators. Similarly, research studies and literature reviews, in the past decade, have documented many negative psychological sequelae (e.g., anger, depression, lower self-esteem, anxiety, guilt, and damaged school performance and behavior) of parental divorce on children (Emery, 1982; Felner , Farber, & Primavera, 1980; Guidubaldi, Cleminshaw, Perry, & Mcloughlin, 1983; Guidubaldi & Perry, 1984; Hetherington, 1979; Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1978; Kurdek, 1981; Wallerstein, 1983). The psychological problems that children experience following parental divorce are not necessarily the same as those predis-

This study was done with the support of the New York State Department of Education and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 14547-07). The authors express their appreciation for that support.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Emory L. Cowen, Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627.

posed by other stressful events. Moreover, there are important individual differences in terms of how children react and adapt to parental divorce. Those points are illustrated in the sections to follow.

Child Adjustment Problems Associated with Parental Divorce

Children's reactions to parental divorce are both like and unlike reactions to other stressful life events. Similarities (e.g., adjustive decrements) stem from the fact that many stressful events attack stable, predictable elements in the child's psychological world and, thus, initiate significant and challenging life transitions (Felner, Farber, & Primavera, 1983). On the other hand, different stressful events create different psychological situations and pose particular adaptive demands. Several recent analyses (Rutter, 1983; Wallerstein, 1983) paint sensitive clinical pictures of the contrasting transitional and adaptive demands that parental divorce and death of a family member place on children. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that children who experience those two stressful events do indeed react differently; that is, heightened aggression and acting-out for children of divorce versus increased withdrawal and depression for youngsters who have experienced death or a life-threatening illness in the family (Feiner, Ginter, Boike, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975).

20

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE

One consistent finding that has emerged from studies of children's reaction to divorce is the increased likelihood of aggressive, undercontrolled behaviors (Emery, 1982; Felner (~t aI., 1975, 1980; Hetherington, 1979; Hetherington et al., 1978; McDermott, 1968, 1970; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1975). The form of such behavior, however, may vary from irritable, tantrumllike responses in young children (Hetherington et al., 1978; Wallerstein, 1983) to sexual acting-out in adolescent females (Hetherington, 1972). Aggressive acting-out responses in children of divorce may be encouraged and sustained by parent conflict and the "modeling" of aggression to which they are exposed during and after the separation (FeIner et al., 1983; Hetherington, 1979; Wallerstein, 1983). Similarly, the feelings of abandonment and anger that parental divorce provokes in children may also favor aggressive responses.

Divorce calls for other key child adaptations as well. After a divorce most children live with their mothers under more difficult life circumstances. Moving to a new home may increase their social isolation (Marsden, 1969; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977) and expose them to less adequate schools, fewer cultural opportunities, and higher delinquency rates. That many mothers must start working, or increase work hours, doubles the child's loss; that is, there is an absent full-time father and a less-available mother (Wallerstein & Kelly, 1975). Too, divorce characteristically disrupts family routines and introduces major changes in parent-child relationships - for example" less consistent parent behavior, less affection, and weaker disciplinary control (Hetherington et al., 1978).

Individual Differences in the Effects of Divorce on Children

Individual differences in reactions to parental divorce reflect both characteristics of children and of situations. The child's age at the time of the parents' separation, as clearly shown in Wallerstein and Kelly's longitudinal clinical study of children of divorce (Kelly & Wallerstein, 1976; Wallerstein, 1983, 1984; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980), significantly shapes both cognitive understandings of the event and the coping and behavioral options available in children's response repertoires. Thus, whereas the very young child is likely to evidence fearfulness, behavioral regression,and concern about abandonment, the older child may be more anxious and blameful and feel overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness (Wallerstein, 1983).

Similarly, girls seem to adjust somewhat better to divorce than boys (Guidubaldi et aI., 1983;

Hetherington et al., 1978) - a finding that may reflect the fact that mothers are most often the custodial parent (FeIner et al., 1980; Santrock & Warshak, 1979). Other child factors thought to relate to postdivorce adjustment include predivorce adjustment levels and prior mastery experiences (Wallerstein, 1983).

Situational factors also shape the child's postdivorce adjustment. Principal among those are the level of parental conflict preceding, during, and after the divorce and parents' ability to resolve postdivorce anger, provide a safe environment for the child, and resume normal parenting (Felner et al., 1980; Guidubaldi et al., 1983; Hetherington et al., 1978; Kurdek, 1981; Longfellow, 1979; Wallerstein, 1983). A key related factor is the availability of sources of support to the child. For adults, support has been found to relate to good postdivorce adjustment (Bloom, Asher, & White, 1978; Chiroboga, Coho, Stein, & Roberts, 1979; Raschke, 1977; Spanier & Casto, 1979). Indeed, such support for parents has been shown to relate both to the child's postdivorce adjustment (Kurdek & Berg, 1983) and to the quality of the parent-child relationship (Hetherington et al., 1978). Connections between support sources and adjustment, however, have been less extensively studied in children of divorce.

Rationale

There is much evidence to suggest that (1) parental divorce adversely affects children's adjustment in ways that differ from other stressfulIife events, and (2) children's adjustment to divorce varies. Although clinical findings such as Wallerstein and Kelly's are useful per se and generate specific hypotheses for further study, their generalization value is limited and they do not provide enough specific information to frame informed therapeutic or preventive interventions for such youngsters.

Specifically, prior attempts to understand the effects of divorce on the self-concept and anxiety levels of specific age groups of children of divorce have yielded conflicting findings. Whereas, for example, Hetherington (1972) found that girls from divorced families had more trouble interacting with males than those from intact families, Hainline and Feig (1978), using different measures, found no differences between college females from divorced and intact families in perceived sex roles, selfconcept, anxiety, and perceived control over the environment. Young and Paris (1977), however, found that college women from divorced, compared to intact families, checked fewer favorable self-descriptive adjectives, and Parish and Taylor (1979) reported much the same finding for 3rd-8th

Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Volume 14, Spring, 1985 • 21

WYMAN, COWEN, HIGHTOWER, & PEDRO-CARROLL

grade boys and girls. Berg and Kelly (1979), however, failed to find self-concept differences among 9-15-year-old boys from divorced and intact families. Cross-study differences in populations, age groups, and measures, however, restrict interpretation of those diverse findings.

Knowledge of the specific reactions of specific child groups (e.g., age) to parental divorce is a key to planning informed interventions for such youngsters. To that end, the present research assessed (1) the impact of parental divorce on latency-aged children's perceived competence, self-esteem, anxiety, and support sources; and (2) the extent to which support moderates the negative effects of parental divorce.

Method

Subjects

Subjects included 268 predominantly white 4th-6th grade children from Rochester, New York, area suburban schools, drawn from two sources: (a) 66 pupils participating in a Children of Divorce Intervention Project (CODIP) in four suburban schools (Pedro-Carroll & Cowen, in press); and (b) 202 demographically comparable volunteer children (32 from divorced families and 170 from intact families) from a pool of 356 invited to participate in the study.

The 66 CODIP children and the 32 children of divorce identified in the second sample were comparable in sex, grade-level, and on measures of perceived competence, self-esteem, and social support. Although the CODIP subsample had significantly higher trait anxiety scores than the seeond (n = 32) divorce group and their parents had been separated significantly fewer months (M = 25 and 80 months, respectively), the two divorce subgroups were pooled to increase the power of all analyses. The pooled divorce sample (n = 98) was comparable to the intact sample (n = 170) in sex, grade, and sociodemographic background.

Measures

Perceived competence. The Perceived Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1979, 1982) consists of four 7-item scales assessing perceived cognitive, social, and physical competence; and general self-esteem. Each structured-alternative item describes two different types of children. Respondents (children) must first decide which of the two they identify with more and then indicate whether that description is "really true for me" or "sort of true for me." Item responses are summed

22. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Volume 14, Spring, 1985

by a subscale and a mean score, ranging from 1 to 4, is derived from each scale. Higher scores reflect greater perceived competence.

Internal consistency coefficients for Harter's scales range from .73 to .83 and test-retest reliabilities range from .69 to .87. With respect to construct validity, Harter (1979, 1982) reported positive relationships between perceived cognitive competence on a measure of intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation in the classroom and found that children high in perceived competence chose significantly more difficult anagrams to work on than those chosen by children with low perceived competence.

Trait anxiety. The ST AIC A-Trait Scale (Spielberger, 1973) consists of 20 items. The child is asked to report the frequency of occurrence of an anxiety-rated behavior (e.g., "I get upset at home." "I am secretly afraid") on a 3-point scale: 1 = hardly ever, 2 = sometimes, and 3 = often. Scores range from 20 to 60; high scores reflect greater trait anxiety.

Alpha reliability for the A-Trait scale is .78 for boys and .81 for girls. Moderate test-retest reliabilities of .65 and .71 for boys and girls reflect some instability in children's perceptions of anxiety. In tests of concurrent validity (Spielberger, 1973), the A-Trait Scale correlated .63 with the General Anxiety Scale for Children (Sarason, Davidson, Lighthall, Waite, & Ruebush, 1960) and .75 with the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Casteneda, McCandless, & Palermo, 1956).

Social support. Children's sources of support were assessed based on information provided in a parent questionnaire, tapping three aspects of children's support outside the family: (a) number of close friends, (b) number of hours per week the child spends in activities with friends, and (c) number of activities in which the child participates regularly. The number of close friends was scored on a 5-point scale: no close friends = 0; 1 close friend = 1; 2-3 close friends = 2; 4-5 close friends = 3; and 6 or more close friends = 4. The number of activities per week was similarly scaled: 0-1 hours = 0; 2-4 hours = 1; 5-7 hours = 2; 8-10 hours = 3; 10 or more hours = 4. For the third item parents were asked to check any of six activities (e.g., religious groups, after-school sports programs, and school band) in which their children participated regularly, and to add "others" if applicable. Activities checked were unit-scored and summed. Finally, a Social Support Index, consisting of the sum of category designators for all three items was computed for each child.

Procedure

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE

Moderator Variables

CODIP children were tested in groups of approximately eight at the first program meeting in February 1983. Parent permission forms and questionnaires were returned at or just before that time. All other children were asked to take home a letter explaining the study to their parents, a permission form, and a parent questionnaire. Children who returned both the permission form and a completed parent response were tested in groups of 12-15 in their classrooms in April 1983.

Results

Results are presented in two sections: (a) comparison of children from divorced and intact families on the criterion measures, and (b) relationships between social support variables and adjustment.

Group Comparisons

The significance of the mean differences between groups was tested by separate t tests for the ST AIC, for the Harter scale scores, and for support items. Means and standard deviations comparing the groups are summarized in Table 1. Significant group differences were found on the STAIC, on perceived cognitive competence, and on the total support index and two support items; that is, number of close friends and number of activities. The third item, number of hours per week with friends, approached significance. .AJI significant differences were in the expected direction; that is, the divorce group had higher anxiety, lower perceived cognitive competence, and fewer support opportunities.

Pearson correlations between subjects' scores on the five criterion adjustment measures and the four support variables were computed separately for the divorce and intact family groups. The resulting correlations are summarized in Table 2. For both groups, the pattern of significant correlations exceeded chance; that is, 8 of 20 for the divorce group and 15 of 20 for the intact group" Although the difference between groups in the total number of significant correlations is itself significant, x2(dfd = 5.01, p < .05, that may in part reflect the intact group's larger sample size. The direction and magnitude of the two sets of correlations are similar for the two groups and always in the expected direction; that is, greater support correlates with more positive self-view and less anxiety. For the divorce group, time since parental separation was not correlated with any of the five criterion adjustment measures.

Discussion

Children of divorce had higher anxiety levels and lower perceived cognitive competence than intact family peers. They also had fewer close friends, tended to spend less time with friends, and participated in fewer activities. Thus, in the aggregate, they had fewer potential sources of support. There were no significant group differences on perceived social and physical competence or on general selfesteem. For both groups significant but low-level associations were found between sources of social support and good adjustment. Those findings support Wallerstein and Kelly's (1976) observation, based on clinical interviews, that latency-age chil-

Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations Comparing Divorce Versus Intact Family Groups on Criterion Measures

Divorce Intact
Variable (n = 98) (n = 170)
M SD M SD P
Anxiety 35.46 8.01 33.03 5.96 2.61 .01
Cognitive Competence 2.83 .67 3.05 .65 2.65 .01
Social Competence 2.88 .71 2.91 .72 .35 ns
Physical Competence 2.88 .68 2.86 .64 .25 ns
General Self-esteem 2.93 .65 3.05 .61 1.57 ns
Number Close Friends 3.24 .81 3.52 .91 2.59 .01
Hours Activity with Friends 3.40 1.14 3.68 1.22 1.91 .06
Total Number Activities 1.80 1.23 3.05 1.42 7.51 .001
Support Index Sum 7.22 2.21 10.23 2.44 10.02 .001
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Volume 14, Spring, 1985 • 23 WYMAN, COWEN, HIGHTOWER, & PEDRO-CARROLL

Table 2. Correlations Between Support and Adjustment Measure by Subgroups

Number of Hours of Activity Total Number of Support
Close Friends with Friends Activities Index Sum
Divorce Intact Divorce Intact Divorce Intact Divorce Intact
Anxiety -.11 -.17a .05 -.14 -.27h -.13 -.16 _.20h
Cognitive Competence .20a .19a .04 .15 .24a .23h .24a .27c
Social Competence .22a .36c .OS .26c -.03 .21h .10 .39c
Physical Competence .22a .17a .29h .2Sc .05 .OS .25h .25c
General Self-esteem .12 .is« .11 .OS .03 .17a .11 .21b
ap<.05; bp<.Ol; cp<.OOl dren of divorce experience feelings of increased anxiety and diminished competence, particularly competence in the cognitive domain, that is, relating to school functioning. Thus, children of divorce may question their ability to handle assigned schoolwork and whether they can do as well as peers in such work.

Wallerstein and Kelly (1976) also reported that latency-aged children had heightened anxiety during and shortly after parental divorce. Consistent with that observation, in this study children of recent divorces evidenced more anxiety than peers of longer-standing divorces. On the other hand, since most of the current sample consisted of children whose parents had separated at least 2 years earlier, the present findings also suggest that immediate postdivorce anxiety endures over time. Such anxiety may playa role in children's feelings of diminished cognitive competence. The combined burden of family concerns and the demands of schoolwork may handicap them in meeting academic responsibilities. Moreover, their anxiety may interfere directly with their ability to attend and concentrate in class.

The present findings also support the observation that children experience social isolation after their parents' divorce (Marsden, 1969; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977). That the present sample had fewer potential sources of peer support than children from intact families, long after the marital dissolution, accords with Felner et al.'s (1980) argument. that this group must make divorce-related adaptations for years. A full understanding of the effects of marital dissolution must, as Wallerstein (1983, 1984) suggests, focus on long-term, as well as immediate, effects.

The absence of group differences on perceived social and physical competence and general selfesteem suggests that divorce does not have an equally negative impact on all aspects of selfperception for this age group. That set of findings is consistent with those of Berg and Kelly (1979)

24. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Volume 14, Spring, 1985

and Hainline and Feig (1978) who reported no differences between children from divorced and intact families in perceptions of self-worth and control over the environment. Because a child's perceived self-esteem is shaped by many interactions reflecting diverse life experiences over long time periods, it may be less affected by marital dissolution than anxiety and perceived cognitive competence, which are more sensitive to discrete events such as parent divorce.

The role of social support in postdivorce adjustment has been studied more extensively for adults than for children, with the general finding being that support moderates negative psychological consequences of divorce (e.g., Bloom et al., 1978; Chiroboga et al., 1979). The present findings in that area are limited in two respects. First, although support was indeed a low-level adjustment moderator for latency-aged children of divorce, it was at least as important, perhaps more so, for children from intact families. Second, the support measure used in this study was a "quantitative" index (e.g., number of friends), based on parent report. Barrera (1981) found that perceived support was a better adjustment moderator than the sheer size of one's potential support network. Stated otherwise, a child may derive more effective, functional social support from one extremely close friend than from five with whom he or she is less intimate. Even so, the fact that extrafamilial support did, in fact, moderate adjustment problems for latency-aged children of divorce should be considered in the context of Wallerstein's (1983) second mastery-task for such youngsters; that is, disengaging from the parent conflict and resuming normal pursuits. Wallerstein implies that building peer relationships and supports helps to remove family conflict from a commanding position in the child's life and, as such, paves the way for resolving later mastery challenges having to do with a child's sense of loss, anger, and self-blame.

Several factors limit generalization of the study's

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE

findings. One is that the criterion adjustment battery was restricted. The literature identifies many other adjustment-related variables (e.g., anger, guilt, and self-blame) that might profitably be studied in this age group. Moreover, since the study was restricted to 9-12-year-old suburban children, its findings cannot be generallized to other age and sociodemographic groups.

The study's most basic finding is that latencyaged children of divorce had lower perceived cognitive competence, more anxiety, and smaller support networks than peers from intact families. There is a need to document further the nature of postdivorce problems and coping challenges facing this and other age and sociodemographic groups. The major adjustive challenges that divorce poses for children underscore the need for developing effective preventive interventions incorporating support principles for children of divorce (PedroCarroll & Cowen, in press; Stolberg & Garrison, 1985). Such interventions can best be informed by pinpointing specific problem areas and mediators of good postdivorce adjustment for specific child target groups.

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