Parent–child Relationships during the Divorce Process: from Attachment Theory and Intergenerational Perspective

This study examined four possible predictors of parental satisfaction in the first year after divorce: Attachment style, parenting style, perception of own parents’ parenting, and the ex-spouse’s assessment of the quality of the parent’s parenting. Findings among 49 divorced couples showed that the mothers’ satisfaction was anchored in themselves and their behavior, fathers’ satisfaction in their perceptions of their mothers and ex-wives. Among mothers, the less dismissing their attachment style and the greater the centrality of the child in their parenting style, the more satisfaction they tended to report. Among fathers, greater satisfaction was predicted by more education, perception of their own mother as less overprotective, and their perception of their ex-wife’s approval of the quality of their fathering.