Introduction
Through the news media, religious organizations, and talk shows, American culture has convinced us that divorce has short-term and long-term negative effects on children especially those from ages 10-17. To suggest otherwise may create discomfort. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman described limitations in thinking when he wrote that we have an excessive confidence in what we believe we know and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance. Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that if we hold a belief but are presented with information that contradicts that belief, we must remove the discomfort we feel by either altering our belief system or ignoring the new information. But what if the new information …show more content…
Since the 1970s, there has been a tremendous increase in studies focusing on children 's adjustment to divorce. Most of the early studies had methodological flaws, which calls their results into question. Some flaws led to inaccurate conclusions being drawn from the studies. For example, many studies in connection with single parents do not distinguish between families where there was a single parent due to divorce or where there was a single parent due to death. The advancement in methodologies and statistical analyses, combined with the proliferation of research, has led to a more accurate understanding of our knowledge of the impact of divorce on children. Because many attorneys and judges have a limited understanding of the scientific methodological have trouble evaluating whether research is of a high quality or not. This limited understanding can lead to acceptance of research results as fact, without a proper analysis of the underlying methodology. A greater understanding of the process of scientific research can lead to a more thorough understanding of how to evaluate the quality of research and the conclusions drawn from the …show more content…
For a variety of reasons, the media and the general community tends to view divorce as bad. Many people assume that divorce will severely impact children in a negative manner. The research does not bear this out. Is it possible the research is too simplistic, and more advanced studies would show that more children are negatively impacted by divorce than current research suggests? Yes. Is it possible that the general community 's and media 's assumptions are wrong and that divorce does not negatively impact nearly as many people as believed and not as severely? Yes. So what 's the truth? Based on current research, it appears that about 20% to 25% of children post-divorce have severe problems. Approximately 75% to 80% do not have significant psychological difficulties. Most children do well post-divorce and do not seem different than their peers who are from intact families. While children may still miss the ideal family and have some negative feelings about their parents ' divorce as Emery has found, this is no different than children who experience other difficult childhood events, such as the death of a parent. Having a stressful and challenging event in childhood does not mean, however, that a child will develop significant psychological difficulties. The research on the impact of divorce on children shows that when children have difficulties post-divorce it is related to specific factors that
Through the news media, religious organizations, and talk shows, American culture has convinced us that divorce has short-term and long-term negative effects on children especially those from ages 10-17. To suggest otherwise may create discomfort. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman described limitations in thinking when he wrote that we have an excessive confidence in what we believe we know and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance. Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that if we hold a belief but are presented with information that contradicts that belief, we must remove the discomfort we feel by either altering our belief system or ignoring the new information. But what if the new information …show more content…
Since the 1970s, there has been a tremendous increase in studies focusing on children 's adjustment to divorce. Most of the early studies had methodological flaws, which calls their results into question. Some flaws led to inaccurate conclusions being drawn from the studies. For example, many studies in connection with single parents do not distinguish between families where there was a single parent due to divorce or where there was a single parent due to death. The advancement in methodologies and statistical analyses, combined with the proliferation of research, has led to a more accurate understanding of our knowledge of the impact of divorce on children. Because many attorneys and judges have a limited understanding of the scientific methodological have trouble evaluating whether research is of a high quality or not. This limited understanding can lead to acceptance of research results as fact, without a proper analysis of the underlying methodology. A greater understanding of the process of scientific research can lead to a more thorough understanding of how to evaluate the quality of research and the conclusions drawn from the …show more content…
For a variety of reasons, the media and the general community tends to view divorce as bad. Many people assume that divorce will severely impact children in a negative manner. The research does not bear this out. Is it possible the research is too simplistic, and more advanced studies would show that more children are negatively impacted by divorce than current research suggests? Yes. Is it possible that the general community 's and media 's assumptions are wrong and that divorce does not negatively impact nearly as many people as believed and not as severely? Yes. So what 's the truth? Based on current research, it appears that about 20% to 25% of children post-divorce have severe problems. Approximately 75% to 80% do not have significant psychological difficulties. Most children do well post-divorce and do not seem different than their peers who are from intact families. While children may still miss the ideal family and have some negative feelings about their parents ' divorce as Emery has found, this is no different than children who experience other difficult childhood events, such as the death of a parent. Having a stressful and challenging event in childhood does not mean, however, that a child will develop significant psychological difficulties. The research on the impact of divorce on children shows that when children have difficulties post-divorce it is related to specific factors that