With respect to general divorce adjustment, individuals who attributed
causality to external factors had the lowest level of adjustment—a level
significantly lower than those who attributed causality to the relationship
itself or who gave ambiguous responses. The results for attachment to the
former spouse were comparable in certainways. Individuals who referred
to external factors had a high level of attachment to their former spouses in
general and were significantly more attached than those who referred to
the relationship. However, individuals who attributed causality to themselves
had the strongest attachment to their former spouses. These individuals
were significantly higher in attachment than individuals who attributed
causality to the relationship or to ambiguous factors. Respondents
who referred to the relationship itself appeared to be least attached to their
former spouses.Asimilar pattern appeared with respect to changes-in-life
appraisals. People who saw themselves or external factors as causes
viewed their lives more negatively, whereas people who sawtheir partners
or factors intrinsic to the relationship as causes viewed their lives more
positively. Contrary to predictions based on attribution theory, these results
suggest that former spouses who attributed blame to themselves or to
external factors had the poorest adjustment, whereas former spouses who
attributed blame to the relationship had the best adjustment. In a supplementary
analysis, we considered the 9% of individuals who gave mixed
attributions as opposed to a single attribution. These individuals, however,
did not differ significantly from those who gave single attributions on any
adjustment outcome.