Mother's or father's custody: Does it matter for social adjustment?

The present study examines the same-sex parent-child hypothesis within the context of mother's versus father's custody. More specifically, it tests the degree to which autonomy, school adjustment and sociability of adolescents of divorced parents are a function of the interaction of the match between the custodial parent's and the children's gender. The study sample consisted of 59 junior high school students of three family types: Father's Custody (N = 16), Mother's Custody (N = 23) and Intact Family (N = 20). The main findings show that the gender of the custodial parent matters very little for the social functioning of their children. It was also demonstrated that the social adjustment of adolescents of divorced parents is somewhat poorer than that of adolescents from intact families. No differences in the degree of autonomy were found between the adolescents of the three family types. These results are discussed in light of the same-sex and gender-differential parenting hypotheses.