Children & Divorce
Nearly half the marriages in Western countries (slightly more than half in the United States, somewhat less in Canada, Britain, and elsewhere) end in divorce, double the proportion of 30 years ago. This fact makes people wonder and worry: Are children casualties in these broken attachments? Does the stress of divorce and its aftermath erode a child's well-being?
To glimpse possible effects of divorce, a research team led by sociologist Andrew Cherlin and others (1991, 1995, 1998) compared children before and after divorce. This monumental study began when researchers interviewed 17,414 women--the mothers of 98 percent of all British children born during the first full week of March 1958. Knowing that some of the children would experience parental divorce, Cherlin and his co-workers studied them as 7-year-olds and again as 11- , 16- , and 23-year-olds. For example, when the children reached age 23, the intrepid researchers traced and interviewed 12,537 of the original sample. These follow-up interviews enabled them to focus on those who at age 7 had lived with two biological parents. The researchers could then compare children whose parents had divorced with those of parents who were still married during the ensuing nine years. Their finding: Children whose parents had divorced experienced more problems.
But was the harm actually done more by the predivorce conflict which the divorce alleviated? "Staying in an unhappy marriage is psychologically damaging," asserts sociologist Pepper Schwartz (1995). However, controlling for predivorce family problems did not weaken the divorce effect, Cherlin and colleagues found. Even after adjusting for emotional problems and school achievement at age 7, the odds of psychological problems were 39 percent greater among 16-year-olds whose parents had divorced in the intervening years. Curiously, a parental death (which can feel less rejecting and involves less conflict) had "a substantially weaker effect." Yet another follow-up, with 11,759 of the participants at age 33, confirmed the emotional aftermath of a chain of events that often began with parental divorce.
To be sure, predivorce stress may also be toxic. Children can benefit when they and a custodial parent escape from an abusive situation. But on balance, reports Mavis Hetherington and her colleagues (1989, 1992, 1998), divorce places "children at increased risk for developing social, psychological, behavioral and academic problems." Such findings come from many countries, including Canada, Britain, Sweden, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia (Rodgers, 1996). Compared with those who grew up in intact two-parent families, children of divorce grow up with a diminished feeling of well-being. As adults they are more likely to divorce, less likely to say they are "very happy," and even more likely to die before old age (Tucker & others, 1997).
But the question persists: are their problems caused by divorce per se? Consider the results of one study of more than 17,000 children by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics (1991). The researchers knew that intact and divided families can differ in many ways (parental education, race, income, and so forth), so they statistically adjusted their results to remove such influences. Still, children of divided parents were about twice as likely to experience a variety of social, psychological, or academic problems. As Figure 4.13 shows, however, most of them do fine--especially if endowed with an easygoing temperament, a stable neighborhood and school environment, and the disciplined love and support of parents, relatives, and friends.
Figure 4.13 Percentage of children experiencing school problems in the previous year In the 1988 National Health Survey, children living with both their biological parents had fewer problems. Although the researchers controlled for factors such as parental education and income, such correlational research can never prove cause and effect. (Conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics, 1991.)
For more information please see the following websites:
http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/hesguide/humanrel/gh6600.htm
References
Cherlin, A. J., Chase-Lansdale, P. J., & McRae, C. (1998). Effects of parental divorce on mental health throughout the life course, American Sociological Review, 63, 239-249.
Schwartz, P. (1995). When staying is worth the pain. New York Times, April 4, 1995, p. C1.
Cherlin, A. J., Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Chase-Landale, P. L., Kiernan, K. E., Robins, P. K., Morrison, D. R., & Teitler, J. O. (1991). Longitudinal studies of effects of divorce on children in Great Britain and the United States. Science, 252, 1386–1389.
Cherlin, A. J., Kiernan, K. E., & Chase-Lansdale, P. L. (1995). Parental divorce in childhood and demographic outcomes in young adulthood. Demography 32, 299-316.
Hetherington, E. M. (1979). Divorce: A child's perspective. American Psychologist, 34, 851–858. (p. 105).
Hetherington, E. M., Reiss, D., & Plomin, R. (1993). The separate social worlds of siblings: The impact of nonshared environment on development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (p. 110).
Hetherington, E. M., Stanley-Hagan, M., & Anderson, E. R. (1989). Marital transitions: A child's perspective. American Psychologist, 44, 303–312.
National Center for Health Statistics. (1991). Family structure and children's health: United States, 1988, Vital and Health Statistics, Series 10, No. 178, CHHS Publication No. PHS 91–1506 by Deborah A. Dawson.
Rodgers, B. (1996). Social and psychological well-being of children from divorced families: Australian research findings," Australian Psychologist 31, 174-182.
Tucker, J. S. & six others (1996). Parental divorce: Effects on individual behavior and longevity, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73, 381-391.