Analysis Paper on : The impact of family structure on the health of children: Effects of...

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Analysis Paper on : The impact of family structure on the healthof children: Effects of divorce.

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Abstract Nearly three decades of research evaluating the impact of family structure on the health and wellbeing of children demonstrates that children living with their married biological parents consistently have better physical emotional and academic wellbeing Pediatricians and society should promote the family structure that has the best chance of producing healthy children The best scientific literature to date suggests that with the exception of parents faced with unresolvable marital violence children fare better when parents work at maintaining the marriage Consequently society should make every effort to support healthy marriages and to discourage married couples from divorcing Keywords Divorce Children Emotional well being Society Epidemiology The demographics of families are changing and with that the philosophical underpinnings of relationships are also changing Many young adults feel marriage is oldfashioned and confining and that open cohabitating relationships provide a healthier option that is more conducive to personal development If a relationship does not provide personal happiness parents often believe that their children will adapt to new family relationships so that divorce or separation will have few longterm adverse consequences These beliefs have led to marriage occurring later women having fewer children and doing so later in life single mothers giving birth to many of our children more parents cohabitating and fewer children living with their married biologic parents In 1960 the average age of a womans first marriage was 203 years that of men was 228 years But by 2010 that changed so that the median age at first marriage was 258 years for women and 283 years for men Copen et al 2012 In 1960 the rate of marriage for women was 765 per 10000 but this had decreased to 374 per 10000 by 2008 The birth rate for the United States is now so low that it is below replacement rate and 41 percent of all births in 2009 were to unmarried women Nearly one in five births to women in their thirties was nonmarital in 2007 compared with one in seven in 2002 Childrens lives track with these statistics In 1970 84 percent of children lived with their married biologic parents whereas by 2009 only 60 percent did so In 2009 only 29 percent of AfricanAmerican children lived with their married biologic parents while 50 percent were living in singlemother homes Furthermore 58 percent of Hispanic children lived with married biologic parents while 25 percent were living in singlemother homes Importantly a recent Harvard study on singleparent families revealed that the most prominent factor preventing many children from upward mobility is living with a single parent Chetty et al 2014 In addition the number of couples who choose to cohabit rather than marry has increased dramatically with 49 million cohabiting couples in 2002 versus just 500000 in 1970 US Census Bureau 2003 Half of the unmarried births are to mothers who are in cohabitating relationships and seven in ten children of cohabitating couples will experience parental separation The dissolution rate of cohabitating couples is four times higher than married couples who did not cohabitate before marriage Osborne Manning and Stock 2007 The Centers for Disease Control stopped gathering complete data on the number of children affected by divorce in 1988 and at that time more than one million children were affected Cohen 2002 Since then the incidence of divorce has continued to climb and according to the 2009 American Community Survey only 458 percent of children reach age 17 years while still living with their biologic parents who were married before or around the time of the childs birth Fagan and Zill 2011 The majority of divorces affect younger children since 72 percent of divorces occur during the first 14 years of marriage Because a high percentage of divorced adults remarry and 40 percent of these remarriages also end in divorce children may be subjected to multiple family realignments Cohen 2002 The precipitating causes of divorce have also changed over time Prior to nofault divorce laws the legal procedures for obtaining a divorce were often difficult and expensive so that only the most dysfunctional marriages ended in divorce Children who are removed from the most dysfunctional environments are more likely to do better after the divorce However with the introduction of nofault divorce laws it is likely that the child has not experienced severe levels of parental discord so the divorce has more adverse effects on the child One study seems to conclude that the majority of more recent divorces were not preceded by an extended period of marital conflict Amato and Booth 1997 as quoted in Amato 2001 Divorce and parental separation are damaging to children families the economy and society as a whole and this paper outlines these adverse effects While recognizing that not all children or parents will experience every negative consequence listed below given the seriousness of these adverse outcomes and the magnitude of the issue it is important that pediatricians support public policies that promote the health and preservation of the childs biologic family Evaluating the Literature When evaluating the scientific research on the effects of divorce on children and parents it is important to consider all of the factors affecting the outcome including family dynamics childrens temperaments and ages at the time of divorce and family socioeconomic status as well as any behavioral or academic concerns present prior to divorce Some adverse effects noted in the literature after divorce are actually diminished when controlled for their presence prior to divorce It is also important to note that violence in a home is never acceptable and can have serious adverse effects on childrens behavior development academic success and future health Effects of Divorce on Children Each child and each family are obviously unique with different strengths and weaknesses different personalities and temperaments and varying degrees of social emotional and economic resources as well as differing family situations prior to divorce Despite these differences divorce has See Answer

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