Parental Divorce On Optimism And Trust: Article Analysis

In the article “Long-Term Impact of Parental Divorce on Optimism and Trust: Changes in General Assumptions or Narrow Beliefs” researchers study the long-term effects of divorce on beliefs about oneself and others. These beliefs include benevolence of the world, self-worth, and control. These assumptions are used to determine what kind of effect, if any, it has on children from divorced families. The research involves two studies conducted on a sample of 568 psychology students from a local university, both men and woman. The sample also includes 458 students who are from intact or non-divorced families. Study 1 was primarily an attempt to outline what variables are of importance. Study 2 was more fine-tuned and examined the identified variables,

particularly, “the respondents’ views of marital optimism, the benevolence of the world and the related construct, and interpersonal trust” (Kathryn et al., 1990). The researchers did use appropriate measures and guidelines, mentioning how participants were given informed consent, and privacy-protected questionnaires. The questionnaire was in 5 parts and included the World Assumption Scale (WAS).
The strategy used in this study is nonexperimental with this group of preexisting college students not randomly assigned by the researchers. I found that this strategy was not the best method for the research design as there was an assignment bias limitation. This kind of population represents in general a healthy population of college students, and does not consider those who may have been affected the most by divorce. Those affected most by the divorce might not have made it to college or dropped out. The authors of this article realize this limitation and suggest that a longitudinal study might be a better alternative for studying the effects of divorce in a “bigger picture” approach compared to a snapshot method of study. Changing the study to a longitudinal study would also help researchers better understand the relationship of the variables being studied over time such as, “quality of parent-child, psychological well-being, and parental conflict on children’s post-divorce adjustment over time” (Kathryn et al., 1990). However, one major threat to validity is participation attrition. Participants may choose to leave the study particularly for individuals who are still dealing with, and/or having a tough time coping with the divorce. To avoid participant attrition, it is best to allow time to pass for sufficient processing time of the individuals affected, or to compensate/have added benefits for the participants like available counseling services.