Predictors of Children's Intervention‐Induced Resilience in a Parenting Program for Divorced Mothers

Predictors of Children's Intervention-Induced Resilience in a Parenting Program for Divorced Mothers* This study examined predictors of intervention-induced resilience in children of divorce whose mothers participated in a preventive parenting program. Contextual, maternal, and child factors were examined as predictors of improved child adjustment using two strategies: (a) within-group analyses conducted with program participants and (b) between-group analyses, in which relations in the parenting intervention were compared with those in a control condition. Between-group analyses showed that children were less likely to maintain program gains in externalizing when maternal demoralization was high or when children's self-regulatory skills were low. Implications for program modification and methodology,for studying predictors of program benefit are discussed. Key Words: children, divorce, intervention, parenting, prevention, resilience. The United States has the highest divorce rate in the industrialized world (United Nations, 1997). As such, a substantial body of empirical literature has developed to address the impact of divorce on children. This literature shows that although there is tremendous variability in response to divorce, with some children showing no ill effects, children from divorced homes are at increased risk for academic, social, externalizing (e.g., aggression, acting out), and internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) problems relative to children from continuously married households (Amato & Keith, 1991 a). Moreover, this risk continues into adolescence and adulthood. For example, parental divorce and its associated stressors are associated with increased probability of teenage pregnancy, school dropout, and adult mental health problems (e.g., Amato & Keith, 1991b; Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin, & Kiernan, 1995; McLanahan, 1999). Fortunately, prevention researchers are beginning to show that interventions can improve children's postdivorce resilience, such that their outcomes following the stress of parental divorce improve (e.g., Pedro-Carroll & Cowen, 1985; Stolberg & Mahler, 1994; Wolchik et al., 2000). Research also is accumulating to suggest that prevention programs do not benefit all participants equally, however (Brown & Liao, 1999). Thus, identification of factors related to program benefit is an important next step toward improving the impact of prevention programs for children of divorce. This study examines predictors of intervention-induced resilience among children whose mothers participated in the New Beginnings Program, a theory-based, empirically driven prevention program designed to promote child resilience during the postdivorce period (see Wolchik et al., 2000). The New Beginnings Program The underlying theoretical foundation of the New Beginnings Program is based on a transitional events model in which children's adjustment to divorce is the joint consequence of the ongoing, stressful changes and events they experience related to marital dissolution, as well as the protective resources available to them (e.g., Felner, Farber, & Primavera, 1983; Kurdek, 1981). Four risk and protective factors were targeted for change by the New Beginnings Program: (a) quality of the primary residential mother-child relationship, (b) effective discipline in the postdivorce household, (c) exposure to interparental conflict, and (d) access to the nonresidential father. These four factors were selected for several reasons. First, researchers have documented that divorce is related to significant declines in the quality of parenting provided by residential parents, including less supportive relationships, poorer communication, diminished affection, harsher discipline, and less consistency and monitoring; less contact with nonresidential parents; and exposure to interparental conflict (see Amato, 2000; Hetherington, Bridges, & Isabella, 1998). …