The Effects of Parental Divorce on Psychosocial Adjustment of Adolescents (The Case of Two Schools of Hossana Town in Hadiya Zone)
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Date
2007-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parents' divorce on
adolescents' psychological and social adjustments. To this end, psychological
and social measures of adolescents were developed. Single-mother, s tepmother,
and intact family types were identified from the responses of adolescents using
the screening questionnaire distributed in two secondary schools of Hossana
town in Hadiya zone. One hundred twenty adolescents, 40 from each family type
(20 males and 20 females) participated in the s tudy.
The analyses were conducted on the basis of different combinations of family
types. Fi rs t, a 3 by 2 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was computed
to find the effect of the independent variables, family type and sex. It revealed
that there was a significant multivariate main effect and interaction effect (p<.05)
of the group as a whole. In addition, subsequent univariate tests revealed
significant group differences on both dependent measures. Follow-up tests
indicate s ignificantly higher scores between the divorced and the non-divorced
groups. It shows that adolescents, whose parents had experienced a marital
dissolution, were significantly worse off than those whose p a rents had not.
Moreover, the effects of parents' divorce tend to differ for those whose custodial
parent remarried and for those whose custodial parent remained single. The most
important finding, the refore, was that adolescents in the stepmother families
reported more psychological problems significantly than adolescents in the singlemother
family,. which suggests that the pare nts' remarriage created more
problems. Similarly, a significant main effect for sex also obtained from the
MANOVA. The social measure of univariate test implies that divorce has a more
negative impact on boys than on girls. Later on, the effect of the adolescents' age
at the time of divorce and their adjustment status was examined. The findings
disclosed that the effects of parents' divorce are higher for those who were
younger at the time of divorce.
Finally, based on the findings, it is recommended that the society has to be
informed on the impa,.ct of divorce on children and adolescents
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Education