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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

48, Shared Care N = 28, AM = 11, 5 Years). Sole care involved
only the mother, and shared care involved joint care of both
parents (agreed joint care). The duration of the sampling period
of post-divorce living was 2 years.

5 Methods

Trust was tested by a questionnaire for measuring the style of
emotional attachment to parents and peers; IPPA - Inventory of
Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden, Greenberg, 1987a,b).
IPPA is an extended version of an older tool to measure
emotional attachment, which is called the Inventory of
Adolescent Attachment (Greenberg, Siegal, Leitch, 1983). The
revised version of IPPA (Armsden, Greenberg 1987) also detects
the perception of trust. Another questionnaire used in the
research was a standardized questionnaire of the Family
Environment Scale (Hargašová, Kollárik, 1992), a sub-scale of
the relationship’s dimension for finding the degree of openness.
Both questionnaires are used in areas of family counseling and
therapy.

6 Results and their interpretation

Table 1 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent's trust towards
parents in relation to communication to parents after divorce
(father's absence in the family environment after divorce)

Father's absence in the family environment after divorce (N=48)

Trust toward mother

,730**

-,427*

Sign.

0,000

0,019

Trust toward father

-,565**

,980**

Sign.

0,001

0,000

Legend: KM (communication with mother), KO (communication with father)
* Significant for 0.01 level of statistical significance
** significant for 0,05 level of statistical significance

The variables included in the test do not have a normal
distribution across the set, so the relationships between the
variables are verified by Spearman’s Correlation. Relationships
of trust were inspected between both parents (especially mother
and father); open communication with parents (especially mother
and father) was detected in adolescents who live with only their
mother after the divorce. The results are presented in Table 1. As
we can see, statistically significant relationships are between
mother-trust and mother communication, and the negative
relationship is between mother- trust and father communication.
At the same time, the results show that high trust for fathers is
associated with low openness towards a mother which positively
relates to openness to father. The results interpret that high trust
towards one parent is associated with low openness, low
emotional expression of feelings, and low level of
communication with the other parent.

Table 2 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent’s trust towards
parents in connection with communication with parents after
divorce (presence of both parents in family environment after
divorce)

Presence of both parents in family environment after divorce (N=28)

Trust towards mother

,954**

-0,246

Sign.

0,000

0,226

Trust towards father

0,075

,935**

Sign

0,717

0,000

Legend: KM (communication with mother), KO (communication with father)
** significant for 0,05 level of statistical significance

In the table 2, we can see the relationship between parental trust
and family communication where both parents look after
adolescents after divorce. Higher levels of trust with a mother
are associated with a low degree of openness to a father. A
higher level of trust with father is associated with a higher level
of openness to the father. We interpret that father's presence in
the family and in close relationship is associated with an open
expression of feelings.

Table 3 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent’s trust towards
parents in connection with communication with peers (father's
absence in a family environment after divorce)

Father's absence in a family environment after divorce (N=48)

Trust toward mother

0,051

Sign.

0,728

Trust towards father

0,143

Sign

0,452

Legend: KF (communication with friends)

Table 4 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent’s trust towards
parents in connection with communication with peers after
divorce (presence of both parents in family environment after
divorce)

         Presence of both parents in family environment after divorce) (N = 28)

        Trust toward mother

0,068

Sign.

0,742

Trust towards father

0,303

Sign.

0,117

Legend: KF (communication with friends)

In tables 3 and 4 we can see that the adolescent's trust towards
parents, regardless of post divorce care is not related to how the
adolescents entrust and communicate with their friends.
Consequently, the interest was focused on the relationship
between trust and friends in relation with communication with
mother, father, and friends. In table 5, we can see that the higher
the trust toward the friends, the higher the level of emotional
expression toward mother. From table 6 it’s clear that trust in
friends in joint custody, is not related to level of communication
with father or mother. A significant relationship was found
between trusting friends and their openness in communicating
with friends.

Table 5 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent’s trust towards
friends, in

connection with communication with mother, father

and friends (father's absence in a family environment after
divorce)

Father's absence in a family environment after divorce (N=48)

Trust
toward
friends

,386**

0,007

,675**

Sign.

0,007

0,970

0,000

Legend: KM (communication with mother), KO (communication with father), KF
(communication with friends), ** significant on 0.05 level of statistical significance

Table 6 Spearman’s Correlation of adolescent’s trust towards
friends, in connection with communication with mother, father
and friends (presence of both parents in family environment after
divorce)

Presence of both parents in family environment after divorce (N=28)

Trust toward

friends

KKF

0,224

0,078

,619**

Sign.

0,271

0,692

0,000

Legend: KM (communication with mother), KO (communication with father), KF
(communication with friends), ** significant on 0.05 level of statistical signifikance

7 Discussion

Family divided by divorce can cause adolescents to behave
differently with both parents. In sole custody (mother) and co-
care, it is difficult for adolescents to develop a congruent
relationship with both parents at the same time. Findings indicate
that trust in one parent reduces openness in communicating with
the other parent, while under the exclusive care of mother. The
research sample was composed of adolescents who had a
positive emotional bond with both parents, and having a
moderate and higher degree of trust in both parents.
Nevertheless, the degree of open communication is considered
individually to each parent. Fixation to one parent is associated
with incongruence with the other parent. We think that
adolescents, based on their personal experiences with parents,
have a wide range of options to avoid conflicts with parents at
the communication level. We believe that parental behavior may
be one of the reasons for expressing positive emotions, which

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