引用
都是為了孩子?父母離婚負面影響之重新評估
For the Sake of the Children?Re-Evaluating the Consequences of Parental Divorce in Taiwan
作者:陳婉琪(Wan-Chi CHEN) | 首次發表於 2020-05-28 | 第 54 期 June 2014
DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.6786/TJS.201406_(54).0002
研究論文(Research Articles)
論文資訊 | Article information
摘要 Abstract
父母離婚是否會影響到子女的心理健康?國內利用長期追蹤調查資 料來探討這類與「家庭過程」有關的問題之研究極少,且在探討父母 離婚的影響時,未曾同時探討父母婚姻品質(或衝突互動)在其中究 竟扮演何種角色。有鑑於此,本文利用「臺灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」 (TEPS)來探究這個問題,並將樣本範圍限制在第二波調查時來自完 整家庭的國中生,得到以下五點結論:一、青少年的焦慮、憂鬱等負面心理症狀的出現頻率,與父母婚姻品質高度相關。父母感情不佳,子女心理健康就差。二、對父母感情不佳的家庭來說,稍後幾年父母若離婚,子女負面心理症狀顯著減少;但對父母感情不佳但始終維持著婚姻的家庭來說,子女平均來說一直處於高焦慮狀態。三、父母離婚對子女心理健康的影響乃視原先婚姻品質差異而定。對父母感情不睦的家庭來說,雙親稍後完成離婚手續,可顯著減少子女的焦慮、憂鬱等心理症狀。對原先父母感情無異常的家庭來說,本分析則顯示離婚的負面影響未達顯著水準。四、對婚姻品質不佳的家庭來說,父母離婚後,劇烈爭吵的頻率並未減少,但最重要的是,離婚後之父母衝突不再對子女心理健康具有負面影響。相較之下,持續的婚姻內父母衝突,對子女心理狀態具有顯著負面影響,此因素乃為「離婚正效應」提供了部分解釋。五、對這些壓力鍋家庭來說,父母離婚可減少孩子與父親之間的親子衝突,也因而改善其心理健康。

關鍵詞:離婚、婚姻品質、青少年心理健康、婚姻衝突、親子關係
Few efforts have been made to use domestic longitudinal data or to emphasize family processes to determine whether and/or how parental divorce affects the mental health of Taiwanese adolescents. In this paper, five conclusions are offered based on a review of data from the Taiwan Education Panel Survey: (a) adolescents report higher anxiety and distress levels when their parents suffer from low marital quality; (b) for low-quality marriages, parental divorce significantly reduces adolescent levels of distress, especially compared to youth whose parents stay in their marriages; (c) the effects of parental divorce on adolescent mental health is conditional on their parents’ past marital quality; (d) in low-quality marriages, divorce does not decrease conflict levels between parents, but the negative effects of parental conflict on adolescent distress levels disappears once they decide to end their marriages; and (e) reduced father-child conflict partly explains why parental divorce benefits the well-being of children. In summary, ending low-quality marriages is beneficial to the mental health of adolescent children by removing the negative effects of parental conflict and decreasing father-child conflict frequency.

Keyword: Divorce, Marital Quality, Adolescent Mental Health, Marital Conflict