Child develoment summaries | Psychology homework help

Journal Info:

Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Country of Publication: ENGLAND NLM ID: 0375361 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0021-9630 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00219630 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Child Psychol Psychiatry Subsets: MEDLINE

Abstract:

We employed an autoregressive modelling technique with data from the Québec Longitudinal Study to prospectively examine the developmental impact of family transition on behavior while controlling for pre-divorce and pre-remarriage effects. Teachers rated children’s anxious, hyperactive, physically aggressive, oppositional, and prosocial behavior every 2 years from kindergarten through to the end of elementary school. Once individual and parental characteristics and antecedent family events were controlled, children who experienced parental divorce before age 6 exhibited comparatively more behavioral disturbance than their peers whose parents divorced later. With the exception of a protective effect on hyperactive behavior, remarriage did not have a significant impact on children’s behavior when the legacy of divorce was controlled. Although the results suggest that children of divorced parents show difficulty in many areas of functioning, the effects of family transition on behavioral development were dependent on the child’s age and the specific behavioral dimension assessed. Compared to other points in development, early childhood divorce was associated with long-term increases in anxious, hyperactive, and oppositional behavior during later childhood. The effects of divorce on children’s fighting were short-lived. Unlike previous prospective studies that suggest pre-divorce effects, we did not observe behavioral disturbance prior to divorce or remarriage.

Article 2

The Approximation Rule, Child Development Research, and Children’s Best Interests after Divorce.

Authors:

Warshak, Richard A.¹

Source:

Child Development Perspectives. 2007, Vol. 1 Issue 2, p119-125. 7p.

Abstract:

ABSTRACT- To remedy perceived problems with the best-interests-of-the-child standard, the American Law Institute proposes that in contested custody cases, courts allocate custodial time to each parent that approximates the proportion of time each spent performing caretaking functions in the past. This article evaluates the goals, assumptions, and potential benefits of the proposed approximation rule in the light of child development research. It concludes that the rule is unlikely to better define and secure children’s best interests and recommends more widespread adoption both of uniform criteria defining the best-interests standard and of reforms that encourage nonadversarial, individualized resolutions of custody disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

 (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Author Affiliations:

¹University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

ISSN:

1750-8592

DOI:

10.1111/j.1750-8606.2007.00026.x

Accession Number:

90768847