42 Rules for Divorcing with Children by Melinda L. Roberts

Still, most children whose parents divorce are resilient and exhibit no obvious psychological problems. Risk typically increases by a factor between 1.5 and 2. Offspring of divorced/separated parents are also more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, live in poverty, and experience their own family instability. Research has documented that parental divorce/separation is associated with an increased risk for child and adolescent adjustment problems, including academic difficulties (e.g., lower grades and school dropout), disruptive behaviors (e.g., conduct and substance use problems), and depressed mood 2. Some call family instability a major public health problem for children others see divorce/separation as relatively innocuous, even a positive change, especially for women in unhappy marriages or children exposed to high conflict. Today, only about 60% of US children live with their married, biological parents, a low second only to Latvia. Divorce increased in most other Western nations a decade or two later industrializing Asia appears to be in the midst of change. The US has been a “leader” in family change with an early (rising in the late 1960s) and high increase in divorce, followed by an explosion in non-marital birth with or without cohabitation. Cohabitation, which is more unstable than marriage, is especially common in Northern and Western Europe, necessarily lowering rates of divorce but not of single-parent households. An increasing number of children across the world experience family instability due to divorce/separation and the consequences of non-marital childbearing/cohabitation 1.Īlternatives to stable marriage are most common in Western countries (including Australia and New Zealand) and less common but growing in industrializing Asia.

42 Rules for Divorcing with Children by Melinda L. Roberts