Can children of divorce be distinguished from children from non divorced families in later years?
Hetherington, Cox and Cox (1985) took a longitudinal approach to this question, using matched groups of 144 pre-school children. Persisting problems up to 2 years later were noted with the divorced group, who showed greater tendencies toward anti-social behaviours, acting out, impulsive behaviours and non-compliance. More persistent problems were noted for boys rather than girls. A second longitudinal study with 341 children from divorced families and 358 children from intact families confirmed and amplified these findings (Guidubaldi & Perry, 1984, 1985) Children aged 7-11 years from intact families had superior performance on 21 of 27 social-behavioural criterion measures, including dependency, aggression, withdrawal, anxiety and peer popularity. Yet, in a classic study, with a sample of over 2000 children aged 7 to 11 years, Zill (1983) found that children of unhappily married intact families reported the most neglect and feelings of humiliation when compared with children from happ
