Interaction of Time and Children on Distress (Fig. 2)

1
Non-parents recover faster than parents following
divorce
Darlynn M. Rojo-Wissar, Spencer C. Dawson, Ryan
D. Davidson, David A. Sbarra, Connie J.A. Beck,
Matthias R. Mehl Richard R. Bootzin Department
of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ,
United States
Introduction
Results
Discussion

• This study is unique in that it addresses how
  having children impacts the recovery from the
  breakup of a marriage for divorcing individuals.
• Half of all marriages in the US end in divorce
  (Demo Fine, 2010).
• Most current research focuses effects of divorce
  on children while little research is available on
  how having children may impact the divorcing
  parents.
• Previous research shows that contact with former
  partner is associated with stalled recovery
  following a break up (Sbarra Emery, 2005).
• Couples with joint children are shown to have
  more antagonistic contact than couples without
  children (Fischer, De Graaf, Kalmijn, 2005).
• Research Questions
• How does having children impact contact with
  former spouse over time following a separation?
• How does having children impact recovery over
  time following a separation?

Figure 1. Interaction of Time and Children

• Contact with Ex-Partner
• 46 (66) of participants had weekly or greater
  contact with ex-partner at baseline.
• 39 (56) of participants had weekly or greater
  contact with ex-partner at five month follow-up.
• Participants with Children
• 40 (54) of participants had children with their
  ex-partner

Parents have more contact with ex-partner than
non-parents at 5-month follow up, with no
difference at baseline. Non-parents were more
likely to decrease contact with ex-partner over
time. The level of contact in parents may be
dictated by the children and co-parenting needs,
whereas, levels of contact in non-parents may be
dictated by other less stable factors. When
individuals did not have children they improved
more quickly than those with children from
baseline to five-month follow up. For parents,
there is no relationship between contact and
distress. However, for non-parents, those with
weekly or greater contact are less
distressed. Future research should address the
direction of this relationship. It may be that
the increased contact leads to decreased
distress, or that decreased distress leads to
increased contact. Future research should also
address participants desire for contact with the
ex-partner. Contact may have different meaning if
it is mandatory compared to voluntary. The
impact of the ages of the children, and whether
or not the examined parent has custody of their
children should be investigated in future studies
as well. Limitations to this study include a
modest sample size and limited information
regarding the context of the contact.

• Interaction of Contact and Children
• There was no significant difference between
  participants with and without children and
  contact at baseline.
• Participants with children were significantly
  more likely to have greater than weekly contact
  with their ex-partner at follow-up than those
  without children, ?2 (1) 12.31, plt.001.

• Interaction of Time and Children on Contact
  (Fig. 1)
• There was a significant effect of the interaction
  of time and having children on the amount of
  contact participants had with their ex-partner,
  such that non-parents were more likely to
  decrease contact over time, while parents
  remained the same F(1,68)8.67, plt.01.

Figure 2. IESR
Methods

• Impact of Events Scale
• Baseline
• Mean 31.25 SD 17.84 range 1-63
• Five-Month Follow Up
• Mean 22.11 SD 18.42 range 0-77

• Participants
• 74 individuals who had physically separated from
  their ex-partner within 5 months and completed
  measures at baseline and 5-month follow-up.
• Demographics
• Average age 45 (SD 10.4)
• 52 female 22 male
• Majority (64) identified as White
  (Non-Hispanic) 26 identified as Hispanic
• Median education Bachelors degree
• Median income 35,000 through 49,999
• Average length of marriage 12.66 years (SD
  9.58)
• Average length of separation 3.88 months (SD
  2.4)
• Measures
• Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R)
• The IES-R is a measure of distress (e.g.,
  avoidance, hyperarousal, intrusive memories) in
  reaction to a stressful event.
• 22 items 5-point Likert scale
• IES-R score interpretation
• 1-11 little to no symptoms
• 12-32 some symptoms

Interaction of Time and Children on Distress
(Fig. 2) After controlling for baseline IESR, the
main effect of children on IESR at 5-month follow
up was significant, F(1, 64) 4.03, p lt 0.05.
The main effect of contact and the interaction
between children and contact were not
significant, ps gt 0.3. Parameter revealed that
IESR at 5-month follow-up was 69 of baseline
levels, and that parents scored 6.98 points
higher than non-parents (Cohens d 0.38).
Figure 3. Children, Contact, and Distress
References
Demo, D. H., Fine, M. A. (2010). Beyond the
average divorce. Thousand Oaks, CA US Sage
Publications, Inc. Fischer, T. C., De Graaf, P.
M., Kalmijn, M. (2005). Friendly and
Antagonistic Contact Between Former Spouses After
Divorce Patterns and Determinants. Journal Of
Family Issues, 26(8), 1131-1163. Sbarra, D. A.,
Emery, R. E. (2005). The emotional sequelae of
nonmarital relationship dissolution Analysis of
change and intraindividual variability over
time. Personal Relationships, 12(2), 213-232.
Children, Contact, and Distress (Fig. 3) After
controlling for children, the effect of contact
on IESR trended toward significance, such that
less than weekly contact was associated with
higher levels of distress, F(1, 74) 3.56, p
0.0629. The interaction of children and contact
trended toward significance after controlling for
the main effects of both, such that there was no
effect of contact on IESR in parents, among
non-parents, less than weekly contact was
associated with higher levels of distress, F(1,
74) 3.52, p 0.0645. 
The data for this project was collected under
HD069498-02 (RB).