A moderated cumulative model of personality adjustment in divorced adults: implications for counselling

ABSTRACT

Using a life-span developmental psychology model of positive personality adjustment, this study had two aims. First, this study aimed to compare additive and threshold cumulative models of personality adjustment after divorce. The cumulative effect hypothesis states that the number of indicators is a more accurate predictor of an outcome than any single indicator considered individually. The second aim was to test whether the association between the positive personality adjustment cumulative model and satisfaction with life (selected as the subjective criterion of personality adjustment) would be moderated by divorce-related variables. Divorced adults (N = 460) were asked to answer to self-report measures of indicators/correlates of personality adjustment. Results supported an additive cumulative model of satisfaction with life, in which the more number of personality adjustment indicators, the more divorce-related satisfaction with life. The association between the cumulative index of personality adjustment and satisfaction with life was moderated by time since divorce and divorce initiator status. Implications for counselling are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Personality
• divorce
• life satisfaction
• adjustment
• counselling
• well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Diogo Lamela is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Lusófona University of Porto, Portugal.

Bárbara Figueiredo is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Minho, Portugal.

Alice Bastos is Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology and Gerontology at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal.

ORCID

Diogo Lamela http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9466-0717

Bárbara Figueiredo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8209-7445

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through a fellowship to the first author (SFRH/BD/43525/2008).