The study embraced a narrative style to explore the various findings from the research studies. Narrative research design is preferable due to its ability to sufficiently cover multiple facets of the research and leave all questions well answered. However, the style suffers the limits of lack of authenticity and biasness since it depends on research conducted by other scholars in various regions. This study’s limits have been overcome by embracing different reviews from different global regions with a range of different years of research.
Parental divorce is often associated with several impacts, particularly on the relationships with custodial parents. According to Aasen Nilsen et al., 2017, Children left under the care of one parent or caregiver suffer from continuous verbal conflicts, negative perceptions of the absentee parents, and excessive control or closeness with the custodial parents. The young adults thus suffer from a lack of adult-child relationships with the non-residential parents who result in disproportionate rates of hate and anxiety, especially regarding their relations. Deprived love and parental affection contribute to the adolescents’ poor behaviors such as indulgences in conflicts, drug abuse, or wayward mental health issues, especially during the transition to adulthood.
Inter-parental conflicts
Parental separation leads to abusive behaviors like withdrawal, anger, and arrogance. Due to the divorce and probable fights between the divorced parents, the children develop violence and negative attitudes towards the non-residential parents since they perceive them as the primary sources of parting. Most mothers after divorce often fed their children with negative perceptions about their spouses. On the other hand, children have issues of disapproval from their fathers, lack of emotional attachment, missing feedback, and reduced lifestyle patterns. Apart from the absence of parental care, adolescents result in depression and mental disorders, mainly when there is no psychiatric support provided (Bohman et al., 2017).
Broken marriages leave a substantial economic imbalance, especially when the children are under the custody of the mother. Most children from the studies confessed that families without one parent were stressed due to the lack of all essentials, which reduced the quality of life and education offered by the custodial parents (Nilsen et al., 2017). However, the study confirmed that joint custody by the parents improved the issues of financial constraints, which rendered better life adjustment after divorce. The joint custody is associated with better conflict management strategies and improved attitudes of adolescents who suffered from parental separation.
Adolescents attitudes and behaviors
Children from divorced families develop different personality traits during the adolescent phases until the transition to adulthood. Most of the interviewed adolescents confirmed high levels of disclosure and misperceptions by the custodial parent. The negative information associated with the absentee parents renders the adolescent to develop anxiety and high avoidance of situations (Afifi and McManus, 2010). The children have enduring discomfort talking about their parents and family issues, which overwhelm them to depression. The negative perceptions hinder the children from pursuing great dreams who adopt introverts and withdrawal from ordinary life.
Post-divorce parental plans such as parent overnights were confirmed to improve parenting quality, which resulted in better-coping behaviors and attitudes among the attitudes. Parental time and quality are synonymous with the philosophies developed by the growing adolescents, which reflect on better academic and social lives during adult transition phases. The attitude and behavior of children vary based on their gender. According to Sandler, Wheeler, and Braver, 2013, an average of 30-70% of overnights with the non-residential parent promotes improved behaviors and attitudes in the children. Notably, male children are less affected when some level of involvement is present by both parents after the separation. Female children are often more attached to their parents, thus have high conflict levels when the paternal contact is inconsistent; this affects their adjustment to marital life during adulthood.