The Relationship Between Parental Divorce and the Child's Body Boundary Definiteness

Abstract

The relationship between parental divorce and body boundary definiteness was studied in a group of Swedish children. Rorschach tests were administered to a nonclinical sample of 90 school children between the ages of 10 and 12. Forty-six of the children's parents were divorced (hereafter called divorce children), and 44 of the children's parents were not divorced (hereafter called nondivorce children). Divorce children were interviewed after the testing. Nondivorce children were found to have firmer body boundaries (i.e., higher barrier and lower penetration. scores) than divorce children. The quality of the child's relationship with the noncustodial father and the child's age at the time of separation were found to be related to the barrier score among boys but not among girls. The vulnerability of body boundaries appears to persist even years after the family breakup, indicating that for children of either sex the effects of divorce are long-term.