Kids of Divorce Lag Behind Peers in Math & Social Skills; More Likely to
Struggle w/ Anxiety, Loneliness,
Low Self-Esteem,
& Sadness
The American Sociological Association (ASA) issued the following news release
about a study in the new issue of American Sociological Review:
Children of Divorce Lag Behind Peers in Math and Social Skills
They Are Also More Likely to Struggle with Anxiety, Loneliness, Low Self-Esteem,
and Sadness.
Children whose parents get divorced generally don't experience detrimental
setbacks in the pre-divorce period, but often fall behind their peers--and don't
catch up--when it comes to math and interpersonal social skills after their
parents begin the divorce process, according to a new study.
In addition, the study, which appears in the June issue of the American
Sociological Review, finds that children of divorce are more likely to struggle
with anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness.
This increase in "internalizing problem behaviors" also begins during the
divorce process and does not dissipate.
"People tend to think that couples go through intense marital conflict before
they decide to divorce," said study author Hyun Sik Kim, a PhD candidate in
sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"My original prediction was that children of divorce would experience negative
impacts even before formal divorce
processes began. But, my study finds that this is not the case."
Instead, Kim finds that children begin experiencing developmental problems after
their parents commence the divorce process, and these issues continue to plague
them even after the divorce is finalized. Interestingly, these problems neither
worsen nor improve following the divorce.
"This study reveals that these negative impacts do not worsen in the
post-divorce stage, although there is no
sign that children of divorce catch up with their counterparts either," Kim
said.
Relying on nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study-Kindergarten Class 1998 to 1999, the study traces the development of 3,585
kids from the time they entered kindergarten in the fall of 1998 through fifth
grade, and compares children of divorce with kids from intact families.
A unique feature of the study is that it focuses on divorces that occur when
children are between first and third grade, which enables Kim to examine the
effects of divorce during three separate stages: pre-divorce (kindergarten to
first grade), during-divorce (first to third grade), and post-divorce (third to
fifth grade).
According to Kim, there are many reasons why children whose parents are divorced
or in the process of getting divorced would experience developmental setbacks.
These factors may include stress that children experience as result of seeing
their parents blaming each other for the divorce or arguing about custody; an
unstable living situation in which children are shuttled between parents or
forced to move to another region with a parent who receives primary or sole
custody, thus disrupting the children's social network; economic hardship due to
a sudden drop in family income; and residual effects of a parent's divorce
related depression, Kim said.
"Having one's parents go through a divorce can be very unsettling for a child,"
Kim said.
While the study finds that divorce has adverse effects on children's math test
scores, interpersonal social skills, and internalizing problem behaviors, in
general, children of divorce don't experience negative impacts on their reading
scores or "externalizing problem behaviors," which indicates how often they do
such things as argue, fight, or get angry.