Divorce can hurt children's math scores, friendships
Young children of divorced parents are not only more likely to suffer from anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem and sadness; they also experience long-lasting setbacks in interpersonal skills and academic development.
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Young children of divorced parents are not only more likely to suffer from anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem and sadness; they also experience long-lasting setbacks in interpersonal skills and academic development.
Stressful new experiences associated with the divorce process include a confusingly adversarial relationship between mom and dad, shuttling between homes, the emotional effect the breakup has on parents and more.
To make out how the fallout from divorce might harm childhood development, researchers analysed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study done in America on 3,600 elementary school students who entered kindergarten in 1998. The study, which also made subjects of parents while checking in periodically on the children, tracked the families through divorce as well as through periods before and after the divorce.
The children were tracked through fifth grade. Over that time, the researchers compared children whose parents had gotten divorced while the child was in the first, second or third grade with children of intact marriages. Among the divorce group, the researchers examined child development over three phases: the "pre-divorce" period from kindergarten to the 1st grade; the "divorce period" from 1st through 3rd grade; and the "post-divorce" period from 3rd through 5th grade.
The study found that while a divorce was in progress, first, second and third-graders experienced a dip in math test scores - a decline that held steady once the divorce was final. Interpersonal skills also suffered during divorce, affecting a child's ability to make and keep friends, and the ability to express feelings and opinions in a positive way. On a positive note, however, it was found that reading scores remained unaffected, and that children did not seem to be at a higher risk for "externalising" problem behaviour such as arguing, fighting or getting angry.
While the children fell behind their peers in math and certain psychological measures during the period that included the divorce, those students showed no issues in the time period preceding the divorce. The results here support the idea that not all divorces are plagued by harmful parental conflict in the pre-divorce period. Once the effects of a divorce do begin to erode a child's progress, they do their work on more vulnerable developing skills. Mathematics, in which new concepts often build on recently learned material, is seen as more susceptible to external issues.
The findings suggest that children may be stressed by an ongoing parental blame game or child custody conflicts. This stress could be compounded by the loss of stability when a child is shuttled between separate households or has to move to another region altogether, thus losing contact with his or her original network of friends. The study may be useful to parents and educators. If a teacher is aware of a student experiencing a divorce situation, it may be in the student's interest that the teachers intervene by adjusting as early as possible to prevent that student from falling behind because if that student falls behind, he or she is unlikely to recover even after the divorce.
Stressful new experiences associated with the divorce process include a confusingly adversarial relationship between mom and dad, shuttling between homes, the emotional effect the breakup has on parents and more.
To make out how the fallout from divorce might harm childhood development, researchers analysed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study done in America on 3,600 elementary school students who entered kindergarten in 1998. The study, which also made subjects of parents while checking in periodically on the children, tracked the families through divorce as well as through periods before and after the divorce.
The children were tracked through fifth grade. Over that time, the researchers compared children whose parents had gotten divorced while the child was in the first, second or third grade with children of intact marriages. Among the divorce group, the researchers examined child development over three phases: the "pre-divorce" period from kindergarten to the 1st grade; the "divorce period" from 1st through 3rd grade; and the "post-divorce" period from 3rd through 5th grade.
The study found that while a divorce was in progress, first, second and third-graders experienced a dip in math test scores - a decline that held steady once the divorce was final. Interpersonal skills also suffered during divorce, affecting a child's ability to make and keep friends, and the ability to express feelings and opinions in a positive way. On a positive note, however, it was found that reading scores remained unaffected, and that children did not seem to be at a higher risk for "externalising" problem behaviour such as arguing, fighting or getting angry.
While the children fell behind their peers in math and certain psychological measures during the period that included the divorce, those students showed no issues in the time period preceding the divorce. The results here support the idea that not all divorces are plagued by harmful parental conflict in the pre-divorce period. Once the effects of a divorce do begin to erode a child's progress, they do their work on more vulnerable developing skills. Mathematics, in which new concepts often build on recently learned material, is seen as more susceptible to external issues.
The findings suggest that children may be stressed by an ongoing parental blame game or child custody conflicts. This stress could be compounded by the loss of stability when a child is shuttled between separate households or has to move to another region altogether, thus losing contact with his or her original network of friends. The study may be useful to parents and educators. If a teacher is aware of a student experiencing a divorce situation, it may be in the student's interest that the teachers intervene by adjusting as early as possible to prevent that student from falling behind because if that student falls behind, he or she is unlikely to recover even after the divorce.
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