J L Edwards wrote:
> Has anyone read Judith Wallerstein's study that concludes that divorce has
profound effects on children? Other studies I've > read suggest the
opposite...that children recover with no long-term effects with respect to
emotional adjustment, ability
> to form relationships in adulthood, etc. Any help would be appreciated.
Please send replies to my home email address.
I haven't read it, but your post made me curious enough to look her up on
PsycInfo. Apparently she has quite a few publications making this claim,
stretching back over 16 years. The one that stood out was
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Family & Conciliation Courts Review. Vol 36(3), Jul 1998, 368-383.
Abstract
Reports on a 25-yr followup longitudinal study of the responses of children
and adolescents to parental separation and divorce. The study was begun in
the early 1970s; findings are based on hundreds of hrs of face-to-face
interviews with 130 children and both parents, who were seen at regular
intervals beginning with the decisive separation. This report is on the 26
youngest Ss in the sample, currently 27-32 yrs old and who were 2.5-6 yrs
old at the breakup. The Ss' childhood and youthful memories are of
abandonment, terror, and loneliness. Contrary to the beliefs of the time,
the effects of divorce did not appear to be a childhood episode, but instead
seem to be cumulative. Adolescence was marked by early sexual activity and
experimentation with drugs or alcohol for many Ss. Their entry into
adulthood also was constrained by their parents' divorce. Financial support
for college was often lacking, fears of intimacy were dominant, and
relationships with both parents, particularly the fathers, were often
strained. Few fathers offered consistent financial support throughout
childhood and even fewer gave support for higher education.
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The lack of comparison groups (children of happy marriages and children of
unhappy but persisting marriages) stands out, and apparently she has been
already questioned about that, as this also appears:
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Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol 30(6),
Nov 1991, 1022-1023.
Abstract
Responds to comments by G. H. Zuk (see PA, Vol 79:19679) concerning J. S.
Wallerstein's (see PA, Vol 78:30226) article on the long-term effects of
divorce on children in which Wallerstein shows a consensus of evidence for
deleterious effects. It is argued that there is no control group in this
study because it would reveal nothing about the effects of divorce on
children. It is also noted that the children in this study were functioning
adequately until their parents' separation.
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I don't follow why "it would reveal nothing", though of course if that
really bothers me, I should read her actual words. I also notice that the
last comment ("...were functioning adequately until their parents'
separation") is at least apparently contradicted by the very next citation:
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Family & Conciliation Courts Review. Vol 29(4), Oct 1991, 448-459.
Abstract
Discusses the difficulties experienced by children as a consequence of the
divorce of their parents. These difficulties, which are evident before,
during, and long after divorce, have complex roots in skewed family
relationships, such as troubled parent-child relationships, the psychiatric
disturbance of one or both parents, and continuing parental conflict.
=========================
I didn't see anything to suggest that she had ever compared the children of
divorce with any non-divorce groups, and that comment that such a comparison
would "reveal nothing" makes me a little suspicious.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
