The consequences of divorce on children related to mothers' psychopathology and parental strategies

Objective is to highlight some aspects related to the consequences of divorce on children, mothers and parenting strategies Method: we have studied a group of 69 children and adolescents with ages between 3 and 16 years being recorded on the evidence base of Timisoara Psychiatry and Neurology Clinic for Children and Adolescents, with various psychiatric diagnoses, divided into two groups: 36 children and adolescents coming from divorced families (mean age 10.69, Standard Deviation (SD) = 3.84), along with their mothers and a control group consisting of 33 children and adolescents from two parents' families (mean age 8.73, SD = 4.09), along with their mothers. We applied Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), for the children behaviour, Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) for the mother's symptoms and Parenting Scale. Results showed that children coming from divorced families have more emotional problems compared with children coming from two parents families; the divorced mothers have higher scores to all symptoms compared with married mothers; the divorced mothers are more likely to be over reactive or have more hostility in their parenting style while the married mothers have are laxness in their parenting style.