Wallerstein’s study, one third of the
children were doing well and
demonstrated high self-esteem. By and
large, these were the children who had
maintained loving relationships with both
parents, including regular and frequent
visitation with both parents. These
children were also likely to have had a
wide network of support in their
extended families, schools, churches, and
communities.
Slightly less than one third of the
children were doing reasonably well, but
continued to display anger, emotional
neediness, general unhappiness, and only
moderately good self-esteem.
Children in the last group, a little over
one third of the children, were intensely
unhappy and moderately to severely
depressed. What surprised researchers the
most was the unhappiness of these
children was actually greater at 5 years
(and later at 10 years) than it was one and
a half years after the divorce (Wallerstein,
Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000).
Almost half of the children in
Wallerstein’s study entered adulthood as
worried, underachieving, self-
deprecating, and sometimes angry young
men and women. Over the years, the boys
in this study tended to achieve at lower
levels in school, had poorer peer
relationships, and demonstrated more
problems handling aggression. However,
their overall adjustment improved with
time.
Adolescent girls from divorced families
are more likely to engage in early sexual
activity and to struggle with anxiety and
guilt in their intimate relationships. This
leads young women to engage in multiple
relationships and impulsive marriages,
often ending in divorce (Maher, 2003).
Teen girls from divorced families are twice
as likely to become pregnant than teens
from intact families (Crowder &
Teachman, 2004). Both young men and
young women tend to lack an inner sense
of how healthy marriages work, which
causes anxiety in their adult relationships.
Even those who go on to marry happily
continue to have fears their marriages
could dissolve at the first sign of conflict
(Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000).
Impact on Children’s Health.Divorce
negatively impacts children’s health.
Children from divorced families have a
greater risk of injury, asthma, headaches,
and speech defects than children from
intact families. They also are more likely
to require professional help for emotional
or behavioral problems than children
living with both biological parents
(Strohschein, 2005; Wade & Pevalin,
2004). In addition to health-related
effects, divorce also influences suicide
rates. Of all the factors contributing to
teen suicide, divorce is the only factor
consistently associated with both suicide
and homicide rates in teens (Messner,
Bjarnason, Raffalovich, & Robinson, 2006;
Szumilas & Kutcher, 2008).Chapter 13