The Relation of state-anger to self-esteem, perceptions of family structure and attributions of responsibility for divorce of custodial mothers in the stabilization phase of the divorce process

Research shows that divorced women usually experience high levels of anger even several years past the divorce event. The present research investigates the long-term influence of custodial mother’s State-Anger (S-Anger, Spielberger, 1988) on divorced mothers' personal adjustment as measured in their ratings of self-esteem, perceptions of cohesion and adaptability, and their attributions of responsibility for the divorce. S-Anger was chosen as the main independent variable in the present study since it is a situational variable that reflects more accurately the stressors of the postdivorce situation for divorced mothers such as increased parental responsibility, work overload and diminished quality of life due to lowered socioeconom-ic status. Mothers’ S-Anger was found to be inversely related to their ratings of self-esteem, perceptions of cohesion and adaptability, as well as to attributions of personal responsibility for the divorce. Theoretical, research and interventive implications are discussed.