Xiao He, Langlais Michael R, Anderson Edward, Greene Shannon
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
J Child Fam Stud. 2022 Jun;31(6):1582-1595. doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-02111-1. Epub 2021 Oct 8.
Despite many mothers' interest in establishing romantic relationships following divorce, some worry about the impacts of dating transitions, such as starting or ending a dating relationship, for their children's adjustment. The literature illustrates that transitions in and out of relationships could hinder children's post-divorce adjustment, but a supportive relationship between children and mothers could buffer the damaging effects. Prior research mostly focused on repartnering (i.e., cohabitation and remarriage) whereas a comparative form of romantic experience, post-divorce dating, is understudied. Post-divorce dating, a critical precondition for cohabitation and remarriage, is assumed to have the power to shape family stability and functioning. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of mothers' post-divorce dating transitions for children's adjustment. Additionally, we test child-mother rapport as a moderator for the relationship between dating transitions and children's adjustment. Longitudinal data for this study comes from mothers of elementary-aged children who were within three months of filing for divorce ( = 316). Results from hierarchical linear models show that mothers' dating transitions exert little direct effect on children's adjustment. However, child-mother rapport moderated the relationships between the time in mothers' dating relationships and children's prosocial behaviors, and between mothers' romantic breakups and children's externalizing behaviors. This adds further support that high child-mother rapport benefits children's adjustment within the context of divorce. Overall, the results suggest that the post-divorce dating relationship transitions may influence children's well-being via indirect pathways and the moderation effect of child-mother rapport on children's behavior are inconsistent across dating transitions. Implications for family adjustment and future research are discussed.
尽管许多母亲在离婚后有建立恋爱关系的意愿，但一些人担心约会关系的转变，比如开始或结束一段恋爱关系，会对孩子的适应产生影响。文献表明，恋爱关系的进出转变可能会阻碍孩子离婚后的适应，但孩子与母亲之间的支持性关系可以缓冲这种破坏作用。先前的研究大多集中在重新伴侣关系（即同居和再婚）上，而离婚后约会这种比较形式的恋爱经历却研究不足。离婚后约会是同居和再婚的关键前提条件，被认为有塑造家庭稳定性和功能的力量。本研究的目的是考察母亲离婚后约会关系转变对孩子适应的影响。此外，我们检验亲子关系融洽程度作为约会关系转变与孩子适应之间关系的调节变量。本研究的纵向数据来自小学年龄段孩子的母亲，她们在提出离婚申请的三个月内（n = 316）。分层线性模型的结果表明，母亲的约会关系转变对孩子的适应几乎没有直接影响。然而，亲子关系融洽程度调节了母亲恋爱关系持续时间与孩子亲社会行为之间的关系，以及母亲恋爱关系破裂与孩子外化行为之间的关系。这进一步支持了在离婚背景下，良好的亲子关系融洽程度有利于孩子的适应。总体而言，结果表明离婚后约会关系的转变可能通过间接途径影响孩子的幸福感，并且亲子关系融洽程度对孩子行为的调节作用在不同的约会关系转变中并不一致。本文讨论了对家庭适应的启示以及对未来研究的建议。
