Effects of Marital Status and Parents' Marital Status on Evaluation of Self and Parents

Summary A total of 980 college students from Kansas State University were asked to take part voluntarily in a study to determine whether or not marital status and prior family structure affected the way one evaluated self, mother, and father. The outcome suggests that evaluations of this triad tended to replicate those obtained in earlier studies upon populations whose ages ranged from about 10 years through young adulthood. Specifically, children from broken homes were found to rate themselves and their parents less favorably than did children from intact homes. Findings from the current study imply that these negative feelings, with respect to self and father, continue to have puissance regardless of the respondent's marital status.