ABSTRACT
Family physicians frequently see children and parents when they are adjusting to marital separation. This study examined how well child adjustment at school could be determined from an assessment of interspousal relations, maternal functioning, and child perception variables. Teachers evaluated adaptive functioning, social withdrawal, and aggressive behavior at school for a carefully selected sample of 22 boys and 24 girls (ages 7-12) whose parents had been separated for two to 18 months. Regression analyses indicated that boys' overall school adjustment was associated with better maternal parenting skills, lower child fear of abandonment, less blaming of father for the separation, and positive parental verbal attributions toward the other parent. Girls with better overall school adjustment reported less blaming of their mothers and a higher rate of positive attributions by mother about father. These findings suggest concepts family physicians can use in working with families to minimize the effect of divorce on children.
Subject(s)
Divorce/psychology , Parents/psychology , Psychology, Child , Social Adjustment , Aggression/psychology , Attitude , Child , Fathers/psychology , Female , Hostility , Humans , Male , Mothers/psychology , Schools , Sex Factors , Social Isolation/psychologyABSTRACT
Previous sex education research has neglected to examine systematically the effects of different types of instruction formats. In the present study, 193 undergraduates were assigned to one of the following conditions: (1) lecture only; (2) small group discussion only; (3) lecture + small group discussion; (4) lecture + extra lecture/review; and (5) no intervention control. Pre- and posttest measures assessed the dimensions of sexual guilt, sexual attitudes, and sexual anxiety. Results revealed significantly greater reductions in sexual guilt for the lecture only, lecture + small group discussion, and lecture + extra lecture/review conditions than for the no intervention control condition. Significantly greater changes in the direction of more tolerant sexual attitudes were found for the small group discussion only and lecture + extra lecture/review conditions than for the no intervention control condition. No other significant results were found. Contrary to expectation, the addition of 9 hours of small group discussion to a semester-long lecture format course did not result in significantly greater positive changes on the dimensions assessed than those achieved by lecture alone. The implications of these findings for the design of sex education courses are discussed. Recommendations for future research include assessment of the long-term effects of sex education on dimensions such as quality of sexual adjustment and consistency of contraceptive usage.
