Post-divorce mother-son relations of delinquent and well-adjusted adolescents

This study exmined the long-term effects of divorce an adolescent boy's relations with their mothers. Eighteen ealry father-absent (before age 5), 18 late father-absent (between ages 5 and 10), and 18 infant families with a delinqunet or a well-adjusted male adolscent were evaluated using observational and self-report measures of mother-son relations, as well as personality measures. Multivariate between-groups comparisons indicated that the relations of divorced mothers and their sons were more conflictive and less warm than were mother-son relations in infant families. Moreover, mother-son relations were least positive ie early father-absent families. Regarless of the intactness of the home, fammilies with a delinquent boy evidenced difficulties in several areas of mother-adolescent relations. These findings suggest that the task of raising an adolescent son in generally more difficult in divorced than in intact families, but that the association between adolescent behavioral maladjustment and mother-adolescent relations is similar across family structures.