Risk and resilience: a study on the role of cognitive processing styles in adjustment of adolescents frominterparental conflict divorced families

Abstract

Concerns about the increasing high rate of divorce and marital disputes in the Hong

Kong community and of children living in these families have been raised by educators,

social workers and mental health professionals. It is held that parental divorce and

interparental conflicts have strong and enduring detrimental effects on the development

of children. This project examined the risk and resilience in terms of cognitive

processing styles in adolescents under interparental conflict divorced family environment.

The total number of adolescents participating in this study was 1,384. They came

from 4 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Seven hundred and twenty of them (52.0%)

were males, and 656 (47.4%) were females. Their age ranged from 11 to 18 years old,

mean age was 13.59 years (SD = 1.06). Among them, 170 (12.3%) came from divorced

families, 1,174 (84.8%) came from two-parent intact homes, and 40 (2.9%) participants

did not answer this question. All participants filled in the same packet of questionnaires.

These questionnaires assessed their attentional styles, symptoms of emotional disorders,

happiness and interparental conflict. The participants completed the questionnaire

under the supervision of the author, or a research assistant, or a teacher in class.

Participants who reported that their parents had separated or divorced were required to

answer additional questionnaires that measured self-blame and self-perceived positive

change.

Data obtained from the large pool of samples (n = 1,384) was used for validation of

the Chinese version of the Attention to Positive and Negative Information Revised scale

(CAPNIR). Data from participants who came from divorced families (n = 170) was

used for validating the Chinese Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C).

Data from adolescents who reported to have witnessed interparental conflict (n = 767)

was used for evaluating the psychometric property of the Interparental Conflict Scale

(IPCS). Results showed that these three inventories had good internal consistency

reliabilities as well as convergent validities. Results of the principle component analysis

(PCA) also showed that the factor structures of both the APNIR and the CPTGI-C were

comparable to the English version questionnaires.

The main findings of this project consisted of two parts. The first part explored the

adjustment of adolescents from divorced families. It also investigated whether divorced

and intact families with presence and absence of interparental conflict would have

different adjustment outcomes, and whether there was an interaction between family

status and interparental conflict on the outcomes. Statistical methods that included

correlation analysis, independent sample t-test comparisons, 2-way multivariate analysis

and factoral analysis of variance were used.

In consistent with existing findings, the following results were obtained. First,

adolescents from divorced families in general demonstrated more symptoms of emotional

disorders than those from two-parent intact families. Second, adolescents from divorced

families had witnessed a significantly higher level of interparental conflict than those

from two-parent intact families. Third, parental divorce and interparental conflict

significantly predicted adolescents’ maladjustment. Fourth, adolescents from

two-parent intact families were happier than adolescents who came from divorced

families.

The second part of the main study focused on examining the relationship between

cognitive processing styles (attentional styles and internal attribution) and adjustment by

using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Several significant findings were

presented. First, a greater level of negative attentional style was predictive of more

symptoms of psychopathology and less happiness. Second, a higher level of positive

attentional style was related to more positive emotion and self-perceived personal growth,

and less symptoms of psychopathology. Third, while interparental conflict was found to

associate with anxiety and aggression, its effects were partially mediated by self-blame;

and the effects of parental disputes on depression and happiness were fully mediated by

self-blame.

The current findings extend existing empirical knowledge by demonstrating that

negative attentional style and internal attribution not only linked to more symptoms of

emotional disorders but also to less positive emotion. At the same time, positive

attentional style predicted positive affect and self-perceived positive change, which to the

best of the author’s knowledge, had not been explored in previous studies. Implications,

limitations and future directions of these findings were discussed.