Children that grow up alternating between their parents’ homes describe more conflicts between the adults in their lives than children raised in nuclear families. They are also more capable of reflection and more flexible.
This is what emerges from studies conducted by developmental psychologist Elia Psouni. She examines whether greater pressure might also entail greater adaptability in the child. And where is the limit for how much the child can adapt?
“Very little is currently known about this and the issue is politically loaded as a subject for research.”
Developmental psychologist Elia Psouni has studied adolescents who alternate between their divorced parents’ homes.
Approximately 25 per cent of all children in Sweden live in family constellations other than a nuclear family. One third of these children alternate between their divorced parents’ homes. Particularly in recent years, this has become more common and it is especially common among highly educated parents. Divorce rates took off in Sweden in the 70s and continued to rise until the end of the 90s. Then the trend stagnated somewhat in recent years or may even have turned, according to Statistics Sweden.
“Among today’s children, a multitude of different contacts is much more common, which could potentially mean a larger support network but also more possible conflicts”, says Elia Psouni, who has researched how alternating between parents affects children.
Her research included investigating 52 adolescents aged between 11 and 16 who have alternated between their divorced parents’ homes since early childhood. She found that these children are often more capable of reflection than children raised in a nuclear family.
“Children who have grown up in alternate homes often showed greater maturity, and there were not more insecure children among them than in other groups of children”, she says. The attachment to the mother was strongest and the degree of security proved to be dependent on the child’s relationship with the mother. This was unexpected, considering that these children spend half their time with their father as the only guardian figure. The difference could not be explained by the fact that the children were more often in contact with their mothers during the days when they were staying with their fathers than vice versa. It probably depends on the mothers having a greater part of the care of the child during its first year, according to Elia Psouni.
Answering this and other important questions in this context requires studies which follow the families over many years. Such studies would not only shed light on the special circumstances that apply to children with alternate homes, but also contribute to more general knowledge about children’s ability to adapt.
While the current study is in the publication process, Elia Psouni is pursuing her ideas about how children in various family constellations from early on in life get to relate to many different contact interfaces, support networks, but also conflicts. There is insufficient knowledge about the impact of this on the children’s socio-emotional development, their capacity to adapt and their flexibility in adult life, she believes.
Elia Psouni is now planning a major long-term study focusing on properties in the early contact interfaces and later flexibility and resilience. The well-being of children of divorced parents is a politically loaded issue, in particular in countries with a traditional view of the family, but also in the Swedish media. However, the research is not about taking a stance but, on the contrary, about understanding what children need for their development to be optimal in an era of new family constellations, says Elia Psouni. It will also be very interesting to see whether we can further highlight the strengths that these children develop more clearly than children in nuclear families.
Text: Ulrika Oredsson |
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