Assignment 7
Post, W. (1997, Jun 03). Divorce's effects on children are long-lasting, study says. Orlando Sentinel, pp. A.1-A1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/279010112?accountid=12536
1) Find a newspaper, magazine, or journal article or blog that discusses any aspect of recent research on divorce.
A) Provide a full reference for the article in APA format at the top of your blog post. This includes the authorname, title of the article, title of the scholarly journal of newspaper/magazine name etc. the title of the article.
Then, using what you learned from the Readings by Rutter (#16) and Li (#17) in your RISMAN textbook.
B) Describe and then explain what the divorce statistics mean. Reference both articles to show you have read the chapters. Use your own words, but note page numbers.
Children are delicate beings and are naïve to the reasoning’s behind divorce and adult divergences. Although the decision to divorce can be agonizing for the parents, the children are suffering at even greater lengths. They do not have the capacity to comprehend the emotions and outcomes they are about to endure. The study conducted by Judith Wallerstein, she addresses the long-term effects of divorce on young children. She states that the negative emotional effects of children are “long-lasting and cumulative” and “makes it difficult for them to weather the challenges of adolescence and early adulthood”. Furthermore, Wallerstein’s study finds “the effect of the parents’ divorce is played and replayed throughout the first three decades of the children’s lives.” Comparatively, the findings recorded by Virginia Rutter also states that children who are in “distressed” homes also face what is labeled a “cascade of negative life events” (page 163) due to difficulty growing up in a divorced family. Coincided with the research provided by Jui-Chung Allen Li, we get a picture of another spectrum of the divorce dynamics. Li observed families to collect behavioral data from children. Li’s research dealt with the significance of possible hereditary traits that effect the child’s temperaments and that the behavior that occurs during a divorce may be the personality traits coming out as explained on page 175.
C) Discuss whether or not the research/statistics seem accurate and evaluate the method used or the sample population.
The research done by Judith Wallerstein used research data that she collected from following 131 middle-class children and their parents in California. Rutter enriched his research by adding recollections of his own personal experiences followed up by existing studies. Li used a national sample of over 6,000 children and used a longitudinal method.
The methods used will always vary over time and place. No two families are the same so positively pinpoint cause and effects of divorce will always be challenged.
D) How could the research be improved?
Families are like snowflakes. No two are the same. I am not sure if there could be a way to improve the research but I can say that significant data can be added to increase the amount of information that can be used and analyzed. If we research the world of divorced families on every continent, from every culture and every background, we will have countless scenarios. There would not be an answer or solution on the behaviors or effects of children in divorce but there would be a lot of useful data to help us understand.
Heather you are correct in using the analogy of families and snowflakes, however, sociologists seek to identify patterns among families and individuals. So, on average, we are successful at categorizing families. This is a key theme in this class, so I just wanted to make the point. For example, on average, families fall into a finite number of categories in terms of family structure. 1) married couple, intact (you), 2) divorced, single mom, divorced single dad, widowed, remarried/step. We ARE able to make generalizations about differences between these families. For example, single mom families, on average, are less well-off financially compared to married couple-intact families. You get my point?
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