Parental separation and children’s well-being. Does the quality of parent-child relationships moderate the effect?

A considerable body of literature takes a deficit perspective and shows that children who experience parental separation have more disadvantages than live in two-biological-parent family. This article argues not all respond identically to their parents’ separation, examines whether there are heterogeneous effects based on parent-child relationship quality. We expect having good with the resident parent can buffer potentially negative child’s well-being. Using longitudinal data from waves 2 13 (2009/2010 – 2020/2021) German Family Panel pairfam, we estimate fixed-effects models sample 2,057 aged 7 15, 99 whom experienced parents. find had high level conflict significantly emotional problems after whereas few conflicts fewer separation. Similarly, only dyad low intimate disclosure behavioral before.