Single-Parent Mother/Daughter Empathy, Relationship Adjustment, and Functioning of the Adolescent Child of Divorce

Children participating in a court-based divorce intervention group for parents and children were asked to "draw a picture of your family divorcing." Analysis of the divorce drawings indicated that children's use of denial, expression of emotionality, depiction of aggression, or use of abstraction in their drawings were not related to sex, age or time since divorce. Results showed that characteristics of children's drawings can be clinically useful in detecting underlying fears and concerns which may be related to coping styles, such as repression or sensitization styles of responding. Either style of coping may be adaptive, since both were related to more realistic beliefs about divorce. A measure of children's beliefs than younger children with boys fearing abandonment more than girls. The longer the time since divorce, the more adaptive were the children's beliefs about divorce. There was also some positive change in children's beliefs about divorce following participation in the group program.