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10 - Adolescents' Development in High-Conflict and Separated Families: Evidence from a German Longitudinal Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Sabine Walper  and
Katharina Beckh
Edited by
Alison Clarke-Stewart  and
Judy Dunn
Sabine Walper
Affiliation:
Department of Education, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
Katharina Beckh
Affiliation:
Department of Education, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
Alison Clarke-Stewart
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Judy Dunn
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
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Summary

As in many other Western countries, divorce rates have steadily increased in Germany during the past century (Engstler & Menning, 2003; Walper & Schwarz, 1999). At present, 37 percent of all marriages in Germany are estimated to end in court, placing Germany at an average level of risk for divorce when compared with other European countries. Not surprisingly, the rise in divorce rates was accompanied by an increase in the number of children growing up in single-parent families. Since 1975, the number of single-parent households grew by about 50 percent. In 2000, 15.4 percent of all children below age 18 lived with a single parent (Engstler & Menning, 2003). An additional 5.5 percent had a stepparent in their household, either married to or cohabitating with their biological parent (Teubner, 2002).

Although much public concern has focused on the risks of marital break-up and single parenting for children's development, the consequences of parental separation and remarriage for children and adolescents have only recently been addressed by systematic research in Germany (Walper & Schwarz, 1999). The largest body of evidence concerning the development of children from divorced and separated homes still comes from the United States (see Amato, Chapter 8 and Hetherington, Chapter 9 in this book) and guides educators and counselors, as well as policy making in other countries. In this chapter, we present findings from a longitudinal study conducted in Germany to investigate adolescents' development in nuclear and separated families, the latter including single mother and stepfather families.

Type
Chapter
Information
Families Count
Effects on Child and Adolescent Development
 , pp. 238 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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