This research compared the social and emotional adjustment of women and children from single-parent families due to death or divorce within the past two years with that of a matched group of two-parent families. While the widows and divorcees did not differ significantly from the married women on measures of social and emotional adjustment, they did report more positive and negative life changes and had higher rates of help-seeking in the past two years. Divorcees reported significantly more friction and resentment in their relationships than widowed and married women. The children of widows and divorcees reported significantly poorer emotional adjustment than the children of married women, but the children from these different families did not differ with respect to mothers' and teachers' ratings of behavioral problems. The results were discussed in terms of previous literature and suggestions for future research.
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