ippolito inglese

THE EFFECT OF PARENT SEPARATION ON CHILDREN

Antonella Ippolito
Psychologist, Torino

Introduction

Separation is an increasingly widespread phenomenon, and one that has to be faced on a daily basis by a veritable multitude of children. Statistics elaborated by ISTAT (the Italian national Statistics Institute) from census data also show that their numbers are growing year by year. "Separation" not only means the division of two people living together, but also a redefinition of many other parameters due to the changes in the nuclear family. In effect, separation introduces new relationships that are no longer ‘free’ but governed by the rulings of an external authority, the Court (for example, as regards the modality and duration of the meetings between the child and the parent without custody).

The aims of the research

The research aims to investigate the possible effects of parental separation on children. The following instruments were used to gather the necessary information:

Interviews with teachers, which provided basic information regarding the family situations of the children (separation or divorce, type of custody given), which was the starting point for defining the sample group.
The "Draw your family" graphic test by L. Corman. Publications to this regard demonstrate how children’s drawing, in particular the "drawing of the family", highlights clear individual differences with regard to the experience of the minor in relation to the family. Indeed, in the drawing the child projects "how it lives" the family, in other words, how the bonds and relationships between the components it considers fundamental are perceived, and thus represented in the drawing.

Description of the sample group

The sample groups used for the research were made up of (Table 1):

30 children between 6 and 10 years old with separated parents;
30 children between 6 and 10 years old with families intact.

Research instruments and methods

The research was undertaken in four elementary schools in Turin, because that age group (between the age of 6 when the child’s ability to draw is sufficiently developed, and 10-11) was particularly suited to application of this type of test.

The ‘brief’ adopted for administering the test was "draw the members of a family", considered less "disturbing" for children with problematic family situations.

The drawings were analysed in two phases:

assessment and comparison of the drawings with an a priori knowledge of the marital situation of the respective parents,
assessment undertaken "blindfold" by and expert (Dr. Reviglio, Child psychologist) with no knowledge of the family situation of the authors of the drawings, aimed at obtaining objective results free of any previous knowledge of the marital situation of the respective parents. The expert was required to divide the drawings into two groups: children with divorced or separated parents and children with intact families.

Results

The results are based on comparisons between the drawings of the two sample groups (considering age, gender and the class the children were in) and a confrontation of the two types of assessment.

As regards the comparisons (table 2), a greater valorisation of the characters can be noted in the "drawings of the family" by children from intact families, expressed above all by the use of lively colours, indicating a good affective level (capacity for contact and affective adaptation), and the details given to the characters, synonymous of interior richness and well-being. In addition, all the children from intact families drew both parents, with happy expressions and a certain dynamic (holding hands, walking the dog, etc.), indicator of good relational adaptation.

In many cases the drawings are characterised and enriched by details like the sun, gardens, houses, all of which elements characterising interior serenity and richness, determined by good interiorisation of the surrounding reality.

On the other hand, the drawings by children from broken homes reveal a low level of self-esteem, expressed by the absence of details distinguishing their portrayal of themselves from the other characters present, like for example eye or hair colour, or clothing (67.7%), the use of more vague or cold colours, or even a total absence of colour (33.3%); the characters are also less detailed, and more static in some cases (23.3%) with characteristics like "empty" eyes, without pupils, a detail not present in any of the drawings by children from ‘intact’ homes. The drawings also seem to have a lesser degree of formal development than those of the children from intact families. The parent without custody is absent in 43.3% of cases. With regard to this particular figure, statistical analysis revealed that this is the case when the children involved have sporadic or even no contact at all with the absent parent (0.01 significance between the variables contact with the non-custodian parent / representation of the non-custodian parent). Erased areas were present in 20% of cases, indicator of unease and interior conflict.

However, all children from intact families (100%) and 83.3% of children from broken homes effectively represented their own families (real portrait) and included themselves in the work. (Table 2)

The parameters applied by the expert to attribute the drawings to the group of children with separated parents were:

use of dark colours, shading techniques, absence of colour;
characters represented suspended in mid air on the page and/or "fluctuating" or scattered about, elements of confusion and dispersion that can be reduced to experience of instability and insecurity;
erasure, indicator of anxiety and feelings of precariousness;
drawn outlines of an aggressive or evanescent kind;
a greater presence of animals, reflecting the more impulsive aspects of the personality (animals were also present in the drawings of children from intact drawings, but drawn with more structure in terms of space and dimensions, and with details like a leash, indicating more control over impulsive tendencies);
absence of one or both parents.

The result of this division of the drawings into two groups, drawings by children with separated parents and those by children from intact families, was effectively congruous with the reality. Indeed, only in two cases did the expert attribute drawings by children from one group to the other group, because in the first case the drawing portrayed characters firmly anchored to the ground and represented both parents, both of which elements found with a certain frequency in drawings by children from intact families. In the second case the expert found elements in the drawing, such as the absence of colour and characters fluctuating in mid-air, that lead to hypothesise problems in the family, and so attribute the drawing to the group of children from broken homes when in reality the child had a complete family. Three drawings had contrasting characteristics, such as elements of both groups, making attribution of the drawing somewhat uncertain.

Comparison of the two types of appraisals revealed a high level of concordance, giving the results a high degree of validity.

Closing comments

Despite the fact that it cannot be excluded a priori that the drawings may be partly influenced by factors like motivation, momentary interest and the graphic ability of the child, this research revealed clear differences between the drawings of children with separated parents and those of children with intact families, confirmed by the results of the evaluation performed ‘blindfold’. A determining factor was above all the contact the child continues to have not only with the custodian parent (a presence that is a constant in its life), but above all with the other parent, as this contact is often much less frequent. The drawings effectively reveal that a good proportion of the children with separated parents (43.3%) establish a single, exclusive bond with the remaining parent, omitting the other because this relationship, with contact decreasing or even stopping altogether, is probably less significant for the child.

States of regression emerge from the formal level of the drawings, in some cases less developed than their peers with intact families. Depressive traits are expressed by the non-use of colour, from the static characters and by the absence of complementary detail (sun, garden, etc.).

This kind of graphic representation thus allowed different psychological realities to be revealed in the children from the two groups, and with the two appraisal systems applied (with and without a priori knowledge of the parental situation) in agreement as to the results gives the drawing test a high level of validity as expert testimony in cases for the attribution of custody.

Table 1 Distributions (sex, family structure and contact with the non-custodian parent) of the two sample: children with separated parents vs intact families

AGE	6 YEARS	7 YEARS	8 YEARS	9 YEARS	10 YEARS	TOTAL
MALE	2	3	3	3	9	20
FEMALE	3	1	1	1	4	10
TOTAL	5	4	4	4	13	30

MOTHER WITH CUSTODY	FATHER WITH CUSTODY	JOINT CUSTODY
21	7	2

FREQUENT AND CONTINUAL	SPORADIC	NONE
11	7	9

Table 2 Results

SAMPLE OF 30 CILDREN WITH SEPARATED PARENTS		SAMPLE OF 30 CHILDREN WITH INTACT FAMILIES
56.6%	formal level satisfactory	96.6%
33.3%	absence of colour	10%
83.3%	drawing of own family	100%
33.3%	valorisation of characters	93.3%
33.3%	self-esteem	80%
43.3%	omission of one or both parents	0%
20%	erased characters	6%

References

CIGOLI V., GULOTTA G., SANTI G.(1997), Separazione, divorzio e affidamento dei figli, Giuffrè, Milano.

CORMAN L.(1967), Le test du dessin de famille dans la pratique mèdico-pedagogique, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.

OLIVERIO FERRARIS A.(1978) (second edition), Il significato del disegno infantile, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.

Comparison of the drawings
Children with separated parents	Children with families intact