Fear of abandonment as a mediator of the relations between divorce stressors and mother-child relationship quality and children's adjustment problems

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2002 Aug;30(4):401-18. doi: 10.1023/a:1015722109114.

Abstract

This study examines whether fear of abandonment mediates the prospective relations between divorce stressors and mother-child relationship quality and adjustment problems of children of divorce. Participants were 216 children, ages 8-12, and their primary residential mothers. Children reported on divorce stressors and fear of abandonment; mothers and children reported on mother-child relationship quality and internalizing and externalizing problems. Structural equation models indicated that Time 1 fear of abandonment mediated the relation between Time 1 divorce stressors and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Time 1 fear of abandonment also mediated the relation between Time 1 mother-child relationship quality and Time 2 internalizing and externalizing problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in children's postdivorce adjustment problems and interventions for divorced families are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Child
  • Child Reactive Disorders / diagnosis
  • Child Reactive Disorders / psychology*
  • Child, Abandoned / psychology*
  • Divorce / psychology*
  • Fear*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Internal-External Control
  • Male
  • Mother-Child Relations*
  • Personality Inventory
  • Risk Factors
  • Stress, Psychological / complications*