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Cognitive Moderators of Children's Adjustment to Stressful Divorce Events: The Role of Negative Cognitive Errors and Positive Illusions
Author(s) -
Mazur Elizabeth,
Wolchik Sharlene A.,
Virdin Lynn,
Sandler Irwin N.,
West Stephen G.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00017
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , cognition , coping (psychology) , illusion , cognitive appraisal , psychological intervention , cognitive bias , clinical psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry
This study examined whether children's cognitive appraisal biases moderate the impact of stressful divorce‐related events on psychological adjustment in 355 children ages 9 to 12, whose families had experienced divorce within the past 2 years. Multiple regression indicated that endorsement of negative cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderates the relations between stressful divorce events and self‐ and maternal reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, but only for older children. Positive illusions buffer the effects of stressful divorce events on child‐reported depression and mother‐reported externalizing problems. Implications of these results for theories of stress and coping, as well as for interventions for children of divorced families, are discussed.