Many theories have been advanced to explain the connection between parental divorce and negative outcomes for the children. These include what might be called the "marital disruption" theory, the "reduced resources" theory, and the "parental conflict" theory (see, for example, Sun and Li, 2002, Amato, 2001, and Hanson, 1999)..
Sun and Li (2002) compared the psychological well-being of adolescents prior to and subsequent to their parents' divorces. Treating divorce as a "disruption process," they examined the effect of this process as well as the mediating effect of the concurrent reduction in social and financial resources.
Student well-being was measured in terms of educational achievement, educational aspiration, self-esteem and locus of control. Achievement was measured through test scores in various subjects. Aspiration was measured through an ordinal scale representing various levels of education. Self-esteem and locus of control were measured using a Likert scale (strongly agree through strongly disagree). Social resources were measured in terms of the frequency of interaction between parents and children, as well as parents' educational aspirations for their children. Financial resources were measured through an interval scale (units of $10,000) for family income and college savings. Students' gender and ethnicity were used as control variables.
The authors confirmed that the disruption caused by divorce affects children both before and after the fact. They also concluded that they could not support the theory that negative outcomes usually associated with divorce are actually caused by pre-divorce conditions within the family. No immediate differences were found as a result of gender.