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Parental marital status and adolescents' optimism about their future

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Abstract

This article reports the results of a questionnaire survey of a representative random sample of all the schooled French-speaking adolescents of Montreal (N=4539). The sample included adolescents from legally intact homes, separated or divorced homes, and homes in which a parent was deceased. Three indicators of future success were included; adolescents from both types of broken families were less optimistic on all three dimensions than were adolescents from intact families. These results are discussed within a socioeconomic framework.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Université the Montréal, and Centre for Research in Pediatrics at Ste. Justine Hospital, Montréal

    Jean-Francois Saucier

  2. Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto

    Anne-Marie Ambert

Authors
  1. Jean-Francois Saucier
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  2. Anne-Marie Ambert
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Additional information

This project was sponsored by grant 605-1356-42 from the “National Health Research and Development Program,” Canada Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1976–1978, and by a research grant from York University, 1981.

Received M.D. from Université de Montréal and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Main research interest are in pedopsychiatry and family life.

Received Ph.D. from Cornell University. Main research interests are in social psychiatry and marital dissolution.

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Saucier, JF., Ambert, AM. Parental marital status and adolescents' optimism about their future. J Youth Adolescence 11, 345–354 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01540373

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