The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors which affected the resilience of children from divorced families and to demonstrate the paths among the risk-protective factors that related to the resilience based on the Challenge Model.
The...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors which affected the resilience of children from divorced families and to demonstrate the paths among the risk-protective factors that related to the resilience based on the Challenge Model.
The subjects for this study were 209 children from divorced families in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades of elementary schools in Seoul and Gyunggi-do.
Scales that were used to analyze relationships among the factors affecting the resilience of children from divorced families were resilience, children's temperament, stress coping style, parenting style, and social support(from parent, peer, and teacher). Such variables as children's gender, grade, divorce period, the gender of residential parent, the socio-economic status of residential parent, the contact with noncustodial parent, the presence of siblings, the contact with adult caretakers outside family, and the experiences in therapy were also used. The data were analysed by multiple regression and path analysis.
The results of this study were summarized as follows:
1. Factors affecting the resilience of children from divorced families.
The factor that the most strongly affecting the resilience of children from divorced families was children's temperament. Resilience was also significantly affected by the support from residential parent, the experiences in therapy, the support from peers, the contact with adult caretakers, children's grade, divorce period, the presence of siblings, and problem-focused coping style. These factors affected positively the resilience of children from divorced families, while children's grade affected the resilience negatively. The parenting style was excluded in the analysis because of collinearity.
2. Paths affecting the resilience of children from divorced families.
There were 28 paths which affected the resilience of children from divorced families based on the Challenge Model. The risk-protective factors were found, too. The most protective factor was easy temperament, which meant well-adjusted abilities and predictable life cycle. The next protective factors were problem-focused coping style, parental support, peer's support, the higher socio-economic status, the experiences in therapy, the presence of siblings, and the contact with adult caretakers. The risk factors were the higher grade, emotion-focused coping style, and children's gender, especially girl. Because the contact with noncustodial parent did not affected the resilience significantly, it was excluded in the analysis.
These risk-protective factors affecting the resilience by the 28 paths interacted with each other, directly and indirectly. This result demonstrated that each risk and protective factor not only affected the resilience separately but interacted with one another.
This study proved that there were many paths affecting the resilience of children from divorced families based on the Challenge Model, and also identified the risk-protective factors. The results of this study showed the concrete direction of intervention for children from divorced families. In future study, it is needed to investigate other variables related to resilience and develop the intervention programs which can enhance the resilience of children. It will be a basis to help children from divorced families.