|
Will divorce affect my child's mental or physical health? | |
|
|
What About the kids?
 Raising Your Children Before, During, and After Divorce by Judith Wallerstein The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce gave us new and important insight into the long-term effects of divorce on children who have grown into adulthood. What About the Kids? is a new book that tells parents in unprecedented detail how to help their children over the long haul -- what to say, what to do, what to expect -- every step of the way. Tapping into the latest findings on how children develop, this clearly written guidebook helps parents understand why children at different ages react the way they do to divorce and how to head off trouble before it begins. The book follows divorce chronologically so parents can find advice for whatever stage of the experience they are in, including how to help older children many years after the breakup. |
|
|
from The
Effects of Divorce on America by Patrick F. Fagan and Robert Rector "When parents divorce, most children suffer. For some, this suffering turns into long-lasting psychological damage. Neglect of children, which can be psychologically more damaging than physical abuse, is twice as high among separated and divorced parents." Yuriko Egami, "Psychiatric Profile and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Adults Who Report Physically Abusing or Neglecting Children," American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 153 (1996), pp. 921-928. "The National Surveys of Children, a major longitudinal federal study done in three waves during the 1980s, found that divorce was associated with a higher incidence of several mental health problems in children: depression; withdrawal from friends and family; aggressive, impulsive, or hyperactive behavior; and either withdrawing from participation in the classroom or becoming disruptive." Popenoe, Life Without Father, p. 62, reporting on the work of Wells, Rankin, Demo, and Acock. "Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago found that the adult children of divorced parents experience mental health problems significantly more often than do the adult children of intact families." Andrew J. Cherlin, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, and Christine McRae, "Effects of Parental Divorce on Mental Health Throughout the Life Course," American Sociological Review, Vol. 63 (April 1998), pp. 245-246. "...one longitudinal study tracked children whose parents divorced in 1946 and tested them two and three decades later. Even 30 years after the divorce, negative long-term effects were clearly present in the income, health, and behavior of many of the grown offspring." Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, To Have and to Hold, p. 35. "The rate of sexual abuse of girls by their stepfathers is at least six or seven times higher, (1) and may be as much as 40 times greater, (2) than sexual abuse of daughters by their biological fathers who remain in intact families." (1) Diana E. H. Russell, "The Prevalence and Seriousness of Incestuous Abuse: Stepfathers vs. Biological Fathers," Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol. 8 (1984), pp. 15-22. (2) Margo Wilson and Martin Daly, "The Risk of Maltreatment of Children Living with Stepparents," in Richard J. Gelles and Jane B. Lancaster, eds., Child Abuse and Neglect: Biosocial Dimensions, Foundations of Human Behavior (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1987), p. 228.
All quotes above taken from: |
||
divorce
|
About
PreventingDivorce.com. This website serves only as a portal which
offers links to hundreds of marriage resources, whether books,
ministries, or otherwise. This website is operated by Caton
Development, Inc. dba the Christian Net Group.
This website explores the affects of divorce on the child.
|
