Numerous studies following the same children over the past 20 years are showing a dark and difficult picture of divorced children with long-term adverse effects lasting well into adulthood.
* One million American children experience divorce every year.
* Single parent families increased from 13% of the U.S. family population in 1970 to 31% in 1994.
* 56% of divorced children had no contact whatsoever with their fathers in the first year after divorce and 23% had no contact after five years.
* Divorced children had the deepest feelings of anger, fear and rejection of any childhood group and were three times as likely to receive professional help as kids from intact families.
* Suicide rates for teenage males increased 557% from 1946 to 1988. The single best predictor of teen suicide was parental divorce and living in a single parent household.
* Rates of depression, low self-esteem, drug and alcohol abuse and juvenile delinquency were all significantly higher for children of divorce.
* Divorced children drop out of school at twice the rate of children from intact families. They were twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school, consistently showed lower test scores, lower grades and more placement in special and remedial classes.
* Early sexual behavior was more frequent among divorced children.
* Divorced children were far more likely to cohabit and not marry.
Using a comparison to medicine and the Food & Drug Administration the authors point out doctors are required by law to inform patients if a drug has a major side effect in just 1% of cases. Shouldn’t counselors in line with their duty to informed consent outline the myriad harms of divorce to those they counsel who are seeking one?
Divorce Views Among Counselors –
From professor and author Don Browning (interviewed by Mark Yarhouse in our Marriage and Family: A Christian Journal), on results from his national research survey on religion and the family:
“One surprise was that 55% [of therapists] did think family form made a difference [with child well-being]… a majority thought that the best form for a family with children was a working father and stay-at-home mother… This contrasts to the common understanding of what therapists stand for today. Another surprise was that specialized pastoral counselors were the least concerned of any professional to caution against divorce if there were children involved. We don’t know exactly how to explain that. The most conservative group when confronting divorce were psychiatrists and female psychiatrists were more conservative than males.”
I totally agree