Lansford’s “Parental Divorce and Children’s Adjustment” correlates with Berk’s Exploring Lifespan Development remarkably well. It is explained throughout the article that divorce is more likely to have a larger impact on relationships with nonresidential fathers and externalizing behaviors than that of internalizing problems and academic success (Lansford et al., 2006). The book also points this out accordingly, by explaining how important contact with the father is when the mother is the custodial parent. The warmer the father-child relationship is, the less likely children are to be influenced by negative emotions such as defiance, aggression, anger, and insubordination (Berk, 2010). It is important for the children to understand and know what to expect in order for them to cope with the new situation. Both resources stress the importance of the child’s relationship with both parents in order to maintain healthy consequences following divorce. Another example of how these two resources coincide with one another is their upbringing of the topic of child support. Many of the single-parent families, following divorce, depend on financial stability from the nonresidential parent. These payments help to relieve strain of the single parent and support the children (Berk, 2010). The states have a way of withholding wages from the nonresidential parent in order to make sure that their child support is paid (Lansford et al., 2006). This is the court’s way of enforcing these …show more content…
The effects on children of parental divorce are commonly negative, no matter developmental stage they are in. Negativity especially rises when family conflict begins to occur. This puts stress on all members of a family and family functioning. Mother-headed households typically are the ones to experience a significant drop in income, causing the family to live in poverty, getting less than the expected amount from child support, or not getting any child support at all (Berk, 2010). This is usually known as an immediate consequence and leads to poorer children adjustment. Another consequence that could relate to the functioning of a family would be remarrying and having to cope with a new stepfamily. This takes a toll on the children because they are not only having to deal with the divorce of their biological parents, but also the subsequent marriages and divorces (Lansford et al.,