1. Running head: DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 1
Divorce, Separation, Intact Families, Parenting styles, Parental Conflict and the Impact on
Children's Wellbeing
Elizabeth wolf
Lynn University

2. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 2
Divorce, Separation, Intact Families, Parenting styles, Parental Conflict and Children's Wellbeing
1. Who wrote the essay?
The authors of this article are Jennifer Baxter PhD, Ruth Weston MA, and LixiaQu PhD
2. Credentials?
The credentials of this article is that it was written in a scholarly journal, the
Journal of Family Studies, it is an evidence based article, and the authors credentials are:
Jennifer Baxter PhD- is a senior research fellow at the Austrian Institute of Families
Studies
Ruth Weston MA- is a principle research fellow at the Austrian Institute of Families
Studies
LixiaQu PhD- is a senior research fellow at the Austrian Institute of Families Studies
3. What are the standards they are using for definition of family? How does this relate
to Cherlins definitions and functions of the family? Is this referring to the private or
public family?
This article uses the standards and views family from a societal standpoint, “a
fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their
children” (Farlex, 2011).Examples of this are; assigned kinship in regards to once a
parent gets divorced bringing in another partner or step parent and the impacts it has on
the child or children, divorce, cooperative parenting and neglectful parenting styles, and
parental conflict and its effect on children’s wellbeing. This article talks about family in
the sense of private families; all of these topics are intimate details about the child’s life
and emotional wellbeing in regards to their family life and divorce.

3. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 3
4.) Who is the audience?
The audience for this type of article would be social scientists who focus on
Families issues especially divorce and children’s wellbeing regarding divorce and are
looking for new or more evidence based material.
5.) What is the central issue being addressed?
Evidence shows that the norm is that children with separated parents have an
inferior emotional wellbeing than children whose families are connected families. But
this is not the most important factor in determining whether or not a child’s wellbeing is
going to be average or not. “Differences in emotional wellbeing were significantly linked
to parental hostility” (Baxter, 2011). In spite of family type children whose parents had
an aggressive inter-parental connectionmanaged to have worse emotional wellbeing than
children whose parents did not have a non- hostile relationship, which can cause
diminished quality of parenting. What is important is the quality of parenting exhibited
during time devoted together affects wellbeing.
The variables in the association of a child’s wellbeing; these associations apply to
intact families as well. The association of children’s wellbeing in measures of co-
parenting and post-separation involving parental involvement; such as in absent fathers if
the father has been hostile it may be in the best interest of the child to have no contact
with him except the father is inclined to change his behavior, the absent father leave
mothers more vulnerable, although it maybe in the best interest of the child not to have
contact with the father the child might perceive this as the father abandoning them.

4. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 4
6.) If the author were a sociologist what would be their perspective on this issue?
The authors are sociologists and their perspective on divorce, intact families,
separation and the wellbeing of children is that,in spite of family type children whose
parents had an aggressive inter-parental connectionmanaged to have worse emotional
wellbeing than children whose parents did not have a non- hostile relationship.
7.) What sociological perspective is implied by the author: symbolic interactionis,
conflict, functional, social exchange?
I believe the theory that best suits this article is the Symbolic interaction theory. I
feel this way because it focuses on people’s descriptions and interpretations of symbolic
behavior, “interpretation occurs in situations in we interact with someone” (Baxter,
2011). What this article is interpreting is the behavior and emotional wellbeing of
children of different types of families and have determined that what the most important
factor to the wellbeing of a child is whether or not they are around a hostile environment,
and that impacts the child’s wellbeing. While divorce impacts the wellbeing of a child too
hostility among the parents is more significant in influencing the child’s wellbeing.
8.) Are they taking a position? Please explain and reference using APA
These authors are taking a position that regardless family type “differences in
emotional wellbeing were significantly linked to parental hostility” (Baxter, 2011).
Unlike the popular position and prior research that parental divorce is more prone to
trigger emotional and behavioral adjustments than children that are in families that are in
one piece. “There was no evidence that children’s emotional wellbeing differed for those
living with a step-father, compared with those single mother or both biological parents”

5. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 5
(Baxter, 2011). Their study found that the most important aspect in a child’s wellbeing is
whether or not parental hostility existed.
9.) What do you think the general “American public "thinks about this issue?
The American public does not see this issue in the same perspective as the authors
who found the evidence that supports this article. For the most part when you look at the
general things the public thinks about divorce you see the mother feeling sorry for herself
and not really thinking about her child’s wellbeing only how she feels and the mother
feels that her emotional state is the same as the child’s. “Separated mothers are more
likely than those who lived with their child’s father to see themselves as either just
getting along, poor, or very poor” (Baxter, 2011). Another issue about what the public
thinks is that it only focuses on what the parental martial status is and not other factors
that could impact a child’s wellbeing. Children of separated/ divorced parents presented
worse emotional wellbeing than other kids whether or not parents had a hostile
relationship and children who lived with both parents and had a non-hostile relationship
had better emotional wellbeing. Lastly, most children are relatively resilient and seem to
cope well when challenged with important changes in their lives, this generalization is
consistent with article.

6. DIVORCE, SEPARATION, INTACT FAMILIES, PARENTING 6
References:
Baxter, J., Weston, R., &Lixia, Q. (2011). Family structure, co-parental
relationship quality, post-separation paternal involvement and
children's emotional wellbeing. Journal Of Family Studies, 17(2),
86-109.
Farlex. (2011). Definition of family.In HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/family