Parental Separation and Adolescents' Felt Insecurity with Mothers: Effects of Financial Hardship, Interparental Conflict, and Maternal Parenting in East and West Germany

Abstract

This study investigates effects of living in nuclear, separated single mother, or stepfather families on adolescents' relationship to their mothers. Focusing on adolescents' felt insecurity toward mother, effects of family type are expected to be mediated by economic pressure and impaired family dynamics. Subsamples from East (n= 220) and West Germany (n= 273) allow a comparison of relevant processes according to contextual conditions. Although no simple association between family type and adolescents' felt insecurity is observed, tests of path models confirm that interparental conflict, impaired parenting, mothers' pressure to side against the father, and adolescents' feelings of being caught in the middle link family type to adolescents' relationship to their mothers. Similarities between the regional subsamples outweigh differences.

Key Words:

• Adolescents
• financial hardship
• insecurity
• parental conflict
• parental separation