[Idealization of the father: a necessary consequence in divorce families?]

In a sample on 243 adolescents, it was investigated whether idealization is a necessary consequence for adolescents experiencing parental divorce. Earlier studies emphasized the negative effects of parental divorce on the development of children and adolescents. Due to historic changes in family structure, however, parental divorce has to be conceptualized in more positive terms. In the study presented, idealization of the non-custodial father was only found in a clinical subsample of adolescents, whereas the father-adolescent relationship in non-clinical adolescents from divorced families did not differ significantly from the quality of relationship described by non-clinical adolescents living in two-parent families. The function of idealization in coping with negative affects such as aggression and affliction is discussed, in particular for those adolescents in the clinical sample who rarely have contact with their non-custodial fathers, and the contributions of fathers to hold up this idealization outlined. Idealistic conceptions in adolescents of divorced parents are especially problematic, since adolescents are expected to become disengaged of their parents and develop a mature and realistic perception of them.