Maternal and Paternal Influence on The Development of Depressive Dissertation

Maternal and Paternal Influence on The Development of Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults of Divorce - Dissertation Example Divorce has been shown to have a profound effect on the members of the involved families, which are both short term and long term and can range from temporary behavior and adjustment problems to jeopardized lifelong relationships (Riggio, 2004 cited in Finley & Schwartz, 2007). The impact of a divorce is the greatest on the children of the divorced parents, who experience several problems later on in life including substance abuse, lower academic performance, ajustment problems and behavioral and emotional issues (D'Onofrio, et al., 2007). It is well documented that children belonging to disrupted families are at a higher risk of devleoping depressive symtpoms later in life as compared to those belonging to intact families (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, 2003). There are several contirbuting factors which play a role in the development of depressive symptoms amongst young adults whose parents are divorced. Amongst these the age of the individual when the divorce occurred, the presence of parental conflict prior to the divorce, detrimental parenting practices, adverse socioeconomic conditions, the degree of parental involvement and nurturance, amongst others (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, 2003; Finley & Schwartz, 2007; D'Onofrio, et al., 2007; Amato, 1994). Timing of parental divorce and the onset of depression amongst young adults: The age of the individual at the time when the parents underwent a divorce is an important factor in determining the onset of depressive symptoms in young adults. Gilman et. al (2003), in their study of risk factors for depression in early adulthood revealed that children whose parents underwent a divorce when they were aged between 0-7 years were at a 50% higher risk of depression than children belonging to intact families (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, 2003). In contrast, another study which compared the onset of depressive symptoms amongst young adults whose parents got divorced between three different age g roups, viz. before-school age; latency period, i.e. 7-12 years and adolescent age group (7-12 years), found that depression rates were highest amongst boys who were aged between 7-12 years when their parents got divorced (Palosaari & Aro, 1994). However, no such association was found for girls. The role of parental involvement and nurturance: Divorce usually results in broken families, custodial conflilcts and adjustment problems all of which have detremental effects on the psychological well being of the offsprings. Following a divorce, one of the parents usually becomes non-residential, most oftenly, the father. An important outcome measure of several studies focusing on the impact of divorce is the desired level of paternal involvement and nurturance (Finley & Schwartz, 2007). Involvement has been defined as ‘extent to which parents participate in various aspects of their children’s lives (Finley, Mira, & Schwartz, 2008)’ while nurturance refers to ‘warm th and acceptance received from parents (Finley, Mira, & Schwartz, 2008)’. Till date, most studies conducted in this regard have focused on the levels of paternal involvement only since mostly it is the mother who gets the custody of the children and there is a paucity of data on the role of maternal involvement in the development of depresison amongst offsprings post-divorce.