Tipul familiei, calitatea relației părinte–copil și efectele asupra stimei de sine, fumatului, consumului de alcool și adaptării școlare. Studiu asupra elevilor din județul Cluj

Abstract

We often discuss divorce and migration because of the social, economical or psychological effects. When children are involved the issue becomes even more sensitive. The recent theories and research underline the importance of intrafamilial processes, more than that of divorce or migration per se. The present paper focuses on the statistical connections between the family type (intact or separated because of migration or divorce), the quality of parent-child relationship as independent variables and the possible effects on children: self esteem, smoking, alcohol consumption and school adjustment as dependent variables. The responders are students in the schools of Cluj County, Romania. The results showed rather small or no effect of family type, but significant effects of the parent-child relationship on child outcome. The relationship with the mother holds the most important statistical effect on children’s self esteem, alcohol consumption and school adjustment; and I also find to be interesting that almost 25% of the responders ignored at least one of the questions regarding the relationship with their father. Parents can learn from the results the importance of a good relationship with their children, and it is also important for the policy makers to consider that the absence of a parent, regardless of the cause, holds a negative effect on children’s school grades.

Keywords

• divorce
• migration
• child welfare
• school adjustment