For some time, there have been mixed readings concerning the long-term effects upon children whose parents have divorced. While academic researchers have established an increased risk for behavioral, psychological, and educational problems among these children, they posit that the difference between these children and the actual rate of children from married (not divorced) parents is insignificant. Clinical practitioners and observers, however, have long contended that significant negative emotional, behavioral and cognitive effects exist in children of divorced parents years subsequent to their parents' divorce.
Using two linked studies, a pair of University of Virginia psychologists seeks to reconcile these seemingly disparate accounts of the long-term effects of divorce upon children: "We believe that much of the apparent conflict between the clinical and empirical literatures is misguided and suggest a more nuanced approach." That is, perhaps both views are correct, and the disparities revolve not around the presence or absence of problems, rather the difference concerns the definitions and descriptions of what is being seen.
The researchers suggest that, while the empirical studies tend to focus on disorders and pathological conditions, clinicians pick up on a much subtler effect, namely, distress or pain. The authors state, "Of course, distress involves subjective ill-being, that is, negative emotions, evaluation of roles, and judgments of life satisfaction."
In the first study, the researchers sampled 193 college students-99 were children of divorced parents-to determine if divorce-related stress was present, and then compared the results against the 94 students whose parents remained married. The Virginia psychologists found, "As hypothesized, young adults of divorced parents reported notably more distress about their childhoods than did young adults of married parents, despite equivalent ratings of anxiety and depression in the two groups."
Findings include students whose parents had divorced experienced feelings of loss that were "significantly related to seeing life through the filter of divorce (r = .66, p < .01)." In addition, self-blame for the divorce was related both to feelings of loss (r = .27, p < .05) and viewing life though the divorce lens (r = .35, p < .05).
Compared to students with married parents, young adults from divorced homes "were over three times more likely to believe that they had 'harder childhoods than most people'" (49% vs. 14%, p < .01). Moreover, these students also tended to wish their father would have spent more time with them (47% vs. 19%, p < .01), and, "almost 1 in 3 young adults whose parents were divorced wondered if 'my father really loves me,' 3 times the rate found in the married group" (29% vs. 10%, p < .01).
The second study was undertaken to compare the experiences of the college students whose parents had divorced to a community sample of 53 adolescents and young adults from low-income divorced families. "These youth and their divorced parents contrasted sharply with the study 1 participants in terms of demographic characteristics. In fact, many of these young people had family lives that were and continue to be chaotic."
The researchers note, that, as in the first study, "feelings of distress about parental divorce were prevalent among Study 2 participants despite their general absence of psychological disturbance...over half of the young people in the low-income community sample indicated that they often wondered how their lives would be if their parents had not gotten divorced, and nearly two-thirds reported that they missed not having their fathers around as much after their parents' divorce. Over a third of the sample indicated that their parents' divorce still caused struggles for them, and almost one third questioned whether their fathers even loved them."
The authors sought to harmonize the differing literatures of clinical practice and empirical research by investigating the more subtle long-term effects of divorce. They believe that they have succeeded: "Clinicians often focus on children's frequent distress over parental divorce and may overlook their successful coping... Researchers can suffer from the opposite problem, missing more subtle distress while documenting the resilience of most children from divorced families. The present findings, together with the broader body of research, indicated that most children from divorced families are resilient, but their distress-their pain-can be significant nonetheless."
More important, however, than establishing an integrated view of the effects of divorce, is the final realization of the awful tragic consequences for children victimized by it: "Most poignantly, almost one third of the young people from divorced families in both Study 1 and Study 2 doubted if their father even loved them (vs. less than 10% in the married group in Study 1), a stark illustration of their sense of loss."
