The Relation of Parental Divorce to College Student Development

The present study investigated the relationship of parental divorce to several indices of college student development. Two hundred and fifty-five subjects from intact homes and one hundred and twelve subjects from non-intact (divorced) homes completed measures of psychological separation and college adjustment. Results indicated that subjects from non-intact homes reported significantly greater functional, emotional, and attitudinal independence from their fathers as well as greater attitudinal independence from their mothers. Nonetheless, they also reported significantly lower conflictual independence from fathers relative to their counterparts from intact homes. No significant differences between intact and non-intact groups were observed with regard to college adjustment. Additional findings suggest that parental divorce may differentially affect the psychological separation processes of college men and women, and that it may especially accelerate most forms of father-daughter separation.