Assignment 7: Divorce

Assignment 7: Divorce

The article I chose is titled “The interactive effects of marital conflict and divorce on parent-adult children's relationships” by Yu, T., Pettit, G. S., Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., & Bates, J. E.

The APA reference for this article is:

Yu, T., Pettit, G. S., Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., & Bates, J. E. (2010). The interactive effects of

marital conflict and divorce on parent-adult childrens relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family,

72(2), 282-292. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00699.x

a)       The researchers who wrote this article were trying to find out the effect that marital conflict, divorce had on parent-adult relationships.  To find their data, the researchers used a longitudinal study with a sample of 585 participants. They researchers found that marital conflict and divorce were correlated with poorer quality parent-adult relationships.  The correlation was much stronger for father-child relationships than for mother-child relationships.  In the discussion, the researchers wrote that this is most likely due to the fact that mothers are most likely to be the primary guardians over their children and it is easier for them to have a closer relationship (Yu, T., Pettit, G. S., Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., & Bates, J. E., 2010).

b)       This article talks about how marital conflict and divorce correlated with parent-adult relationship.  The researchers stated that “Consistent with previous research, we found that parents' marital conflict and divorce were both associated with adult child relationships with parents” (Yu et al, 2010).

c)       The report was in a graph and a table.  I did not understand the graph at all.  However, the table was really clear to understand.

d)       The study I chose has few limitations but the biggest one is that the sample size does not represent the population well.  They mostly used middle class in their sample.  The higher and lower class is nowhere to be found.