New Study Concludes that Divorce is Neither Good nor Bad: May Not Cause Kids’ Bad Behavior

Here’s a news flash. The “experts” disagree! Many well-respected studies over the years have concluded that kids are often negatively impacted as a result of their parent’s divorce. However according to Allen Li, of the prestigious RAND Corporation’s Population Research Center in Santa Monica, California, most kids are not seriously affected by the divorce in the long term, but a divorce raises the risk that a child will have future problems. Li presented his findings in Chicago April 26, 2008, at a meeting of the non-profit Council on Contemporary Families.

The study by Li was based upon a large sample-6,332 children. His methodology differed from that which was used by others in the past. He didn’t measure children of divorced parents with children of married parents. Instead, he measured behavior problems such as crying, cheating or arguing frequently, in children ages four to fifteen before and after their parents’ split. He describes it as a “longitudinal approach”. Li found a slight increase in bad behavior on post-divorce children but excluded the finding because it was so slight. In the abstract to his study, Li concludes “that children of divorce would have fared equally well/poor in terms of their emotional well-being Read More... “New Study Concludes that Divorce is Neither Good nor Bad: May Not Cause Kids’ Bad Behavior”

Improving Resiliency

Resiliency is a topic that I find myself discussing often with my divorce clients. I recently came across an interesting article on that subject which prompted this post. Resilience can de defined as the human ability to deal with, learn from, overcome and even be changed by the unfortunate but unavoidable adversities that life throws our way. Dr. Edith Grotberg, a developmental psychologist, has done extensive worldwide research on the subject of fostering resiliency. In a recent interview in the Palo Alto Daily News, Heath Matters: Resilience Can Be Improved Upon, by columnist L.J. Anderson, Dr. Grotberg stated that people are born with the capacity to be resilient, but the challenge should be to continually work to increase ones ability to be resilient so that when adversities present themselves, an individual is able to handle the situation.  She believes that the capacity for resilience can be strengthened in both adults and children.  She challenges parents and other resilient adults who work with children to help foster children’s resiliency.

Dr. Grotberg became interested in the study of resilience while teaching at the University for Women in Sudan, Africa. She was tired of having poor and less fortunate people being labeled … Read More... “Improving Resiliency”

Statistics Regarding Military Divorces

Men and women serving in the armed forces of our country encounter many stresses within their marriages that men and women in the general public do not experience. Long separations from marriage partners and other family members and hardships experienced due to war conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq play havoc on many military marriages. So, it is somewhat surprising that the divorce rate among men and women serving in the military remained steady last year at 3.3 percent. From October 1, 2006, through October 1, 2007, there were 25,000 failed marriages out of approximately 755,000 married active duty troops. These statistics represent members of all military branches.

According to information provided by the Defense Department, members of the Army had a divorce rate of 3.2 percent, a rate which remains unchanged from the previous year. Of the 275,000 married Army soldiers, that amounts to approximately 8,750 divorces. Comparing all branches of the military, it is the Army which has the largest number of troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. More Army couples had to cope with longer separations as many tours of duty were extended from twelve (12) months to fifteen (15) months in duration. This past year was also … Read More... “Statistics Regarding Military Divorces”

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