Publications
Partners
The New York Times reports on a recent survey of 1 500 people between the ages of 18 and 35 that shows the differences between children whose parents divorced and those whose parents stayed together. It was split between those whose parents divorced, while they were under the age of 14, and those whose parents didn't divorce.
Even in the most amicable of situations, the study showed, children of divorced parents found themselves in stressful situations as compared to children whose parents remained married.
Happy talk – not the truth
"All the happy talk about divorce is designed to reassure parents," The Times quotes study author Elizabeth Marquardt as saying. "But it's not the truth for children. Even a good divorce restructures children's childhoods and leaves them travelling between two distinct worlds."
A typical example of a stressful situation, the results say, is how those who came from divorced families felt about relating to their parents. According to the Times, they were far more likely than those who came from intact families to feel as if they were a different person with each parent; they sometimes felt like outsiders. And many of them said they had spent a lot of time alone when they were children.
Marquardt has used her findings as the basis for a book, Between Two Worlds. – (HealthDayNews)
Discuss this article in our Divorce support group
November 2005
