Abstract

HOMEM, Tatiana Carvalho; CANAVARRO, Maria Cristina  and  PEREIRA, Ana Isabel Leite de Freitas. Risk and resilience factors in children’s academic and emotional adjustment to their parents’ divorce. Psicologia [online]. 2009, vol.23, n.1, pp.7-25. ISSN 0874-2049.  https://doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v23i1.315.

Until the 70’s separation/divorce was mainly analysed from a moral and legal point of view and it was conceptualized as a situation with very negative consequences for children. Since then, less linear and more integrative points of view have been offering a new perspective on divorce, conceptualizing it as a complex process which includes many components (psychological, legal, economic, parental and social) and requires family and individual adaptations, both to parents and to children.This new perspective requires attention to the diversity of developmental trajectories and a new focus on the mechanisms and processes responsible for this diversity. The aim of this study is to characterize the adaptation (measured by the emotional and academic adjustment) of children from divorced families, compared to the adaptation of children from intact families. Our sample includes 426 children from third and fourth grades, their parents and teachers and it was collected in public and private schools in the North, Centre and South of Portugal.

Keywords : divorce; emotional adjustment; academic adjustment; child development.

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