by Jan Pryor and Bryan Rodgers,
Blackwell 2001
Information on Jan Pryor: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/academic/pryor/pryor.html
Ordering information and reviews : http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/asp/book.asp?ref=0631215751
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by Jan Pryor and Bryan Rodgers,
Blackwell 2001
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'Children in Changing Families' reviews recent demographic changes throughout the Western world, and outlines research into outcomes for children affected by parental separation and step family formation. Thirty-five pages of references, and a detailed discussion in chapter 2 of the various theoretical frameworks used by writers on the subject makes this work invaluable for those seeking an understanding of the scientific literature.
However, while it will be of much use to researchers and students, the academic writing style will make it a hard slog for the general reader. The usefulness of this book is also greatly reduced by its reliance on a 1990s view of the world in which opposing positions are categorised as liberal (ie: feminist) vs conservative. This paradigm effectively excludes the emerging perspective held by many in the fathers' / men's movement, who will discover that they do not fit easily into either of these camps, as characterised by the authors. While they have included a chapter dealing with fathers in families, there is no specific focus on children born to lone mothers, and there is little discussion of issues important to progressive fathers such as parental alienation syndrome, female domestic violence, or false accusations of abuse.
It is encouraging to find that there are psychologists (particularly when they are a Family Court report writer like Pryor) committed to a scientific perspective; as opposed to those who seem to operate from a purely ideological agenda. If the profession as a whole is to counter the growing perception that they are part of the problem rather than part of the solution, urgent attention must be paid to the areas where the authors of this book point out research is needed. In addition, the issues outlined above that the writers have not addressed must also be researched and interpreted so that future framers of social policy can be fully informed.
[NB: Most references have been removed - refer to the book before quoting. Bold emphasis
added]
Page 30
Whenever we attempt to understand complex phenomena such as children's lives after separation, we bring to our investigation patterns of
values and beliefs that may not be entirely conscious. When these phenomena have a personal meaning for us, as is the case with children and family transitions, individual experiences and concerns are as likely to influence our interpretation of the "facts" as our theoretical frameworks. Few people have not witnessed at close hand the breakdown and reconstitution of families, either one's own or those of friends or relatives.
As far as research and researchers are concerned, the same confusion of values, interpretations, and theories applies. Not only is a welter of information available, but it also comes from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, psychology, psychiatry, education, criminology, epidemiology, economics, law, and social policy. Each comes with its own peculiar traditions of theory, methodology, and terminology. Scholars span the continuum of the debate from conservative to liberal viewpoints, and not only bring these subjectively based frameworks to their work but also run the danger of utilising research information selectively in order to support their view............ Academic writers are guilty, often, of not being clear about the conceptual frameworks they are using to guide their work, and this has implications for both what they do and what they convey. It is hardly surprising then, that views expressed by journalists in the media and by lay people, who often rely only on what is written by scholars, are sometimes confusing.
Page 61
Overall, the magnitude of effect sizes for aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behaviour are again rather modest. The most typical findings for the US were from the National Health Examination Survey of 1996-70, where 15 percent of adolescents from separated families have two or more contacts with the law compared with 8 percent of their peers from intact families, and the National Survey of Children in 1976-87, where equivalent figures for ever being suspended or expelled were 11.3 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.
Page 62
The stability across generations of differences between children from separated and intact families was noted previously by Wells and Rankin in their meta-analysis of delinquency and broken homes. There is one very striking pattern in the findings, however, in relation to gender. Of 17 instances where studies presented separate findings for male and female members of their samples, only one study reported a "+++" [effect size of 23.5 - 33.7% vs 10%] outcome for females, whereas 15 reported an effect sizes of this magnitude for males. Of course, aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behaviour is more common in males and females, but this does not in itself explain why differences between children from separated and intact families are larger for males.
Page 66
Children from separated and intact families: summary
The overriding impression from this compendium of studies, spanning several domains of outcomes, as that
differences between children from separated and intact families are seen in all areas
considered as important aspects of individual social, psychological, and physical development, but the size of these differences is not large. There is some variation in the strength of relationships observed, these being somewhat weaker for childhood social and emotional behaviour and for substance abuse in adolescence and adulthood, and somewhat stronger for family and intimate relationships in adolescence and adulthood. Children from separated families typically have from one-and-a-half times to double the risk of an adverse outcome compared to children from intact original families. For some outcomes, patterns of results vary with the age or gender of participants but, generally, findings are remarkably robust across time, geographical location, and sub-groups within the populations studied. The disadvantages associated with parental separation are not only seen in childhood but are notably persistent. There are even circumstances, such as alcohol use, where effect sizes appear larger later in adulthood. The larger differences seen for outcomes in the domain of family and intimate relationships are also more pertinent in adult life than childhood, and this adds to the seeming divergence between children from different family types as they grow older.
Although the magnitude of overall differences between children from separated and intact families is very modest, such differences can still be of immense importance at the population level in terms of the
implications for services and other social costs of poor outcomes. This is especially so in recent times because of the greater proportion of children who experience parental separation. Other firms of childhood adversity, such as physical or sexual abuse, may be far more detrimental for the individuals concerned, but their impact may not be so important at the population level because of the relative rarity of their
occurence. The public health significance of parental separation can be assessed by taking account not just of effect sizes associated with this risk factor but also with the proportion of children who experience family transitions.
A statistical tool used in epidemiology, known as population attributable risk (PAR), provides a valuable way of estimating the importance of parental separation for social policy and cost of providing services. If we assume, as for some outcomes summarised in this chapter, that
children from separated families have roughly double the likelihood of having a poor outcome
and also that about 25% of children experience parental separation (the proportion currently in the UK, Australasia, and Canada) then we can calculate that 1 in 5 occurrences of that poor outcome in the total population is "attributable" to the increased risk seen in the children from separated families, i.e. a PAR of 20 percent. Correspondingly, if the risk in children from separated families could be reduced to the same level as those from intact families then the burden on society of the poor outcome concerned would be reduced by 20 percent.
This is far from trivial in terms of services and necessary public
expenditure. In Australia, for example, 20 percent of current government expenditure on mental health services corresponds to a reduction of around AU$500 million per annum, equivalent to over $32 per head of the adult population each year.
Page 133-4
Although there is some recognition that children might be involved in the decisions arising from their parents separation,
we know little about what children generally think about visiting patterns and living arrangements after parental separation. A few studies, though, has been carried out and Canada, the USA, and New Zealand, that have asked children from the ages of 12 through to young adulthood what their preferred living situations would be. Young people were asked in various ways about their views, including vignettes and questionnaires. Between 61 percent (Canada) and 68 percent (New Zealand) of those asked endorsed spending equal time with both parents. There were some age differences: younger children were more likely than those who were older to want to spend equal time with both parents. Only one study reported sex differences: in the US group girls were more likely than boys to want to live with mothers. Findings were mixed with regard to the relevance of the young people's own experiences to their attitudes. In the New Zealand study, which used vignettes to ask over 200 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 about their attitudes, their own experiences of parental separation or living in step families made no difference to their responses.
Page 149-50
Families vary, then, in the presence and the level of conflict leading up to separation, and there is further heterogeneity in the changes accompanying separation. For some families, separation may bring an end to a long period of conflict, and this can represent an escape route for children who have witnessed or been involved in such conflict. In other families, separation may signal the beginning of a period of anger and hostility between parents over such issues as property settlement, child support, residence and contact with children - issues that often put the focus on children themselves. Children are unlikely to remain ignorant of any dispute over residence or contact, and they are used all too often as intermediaries or messengers in such disputes. They face considerable difficulties in maintaining respect and affection for both parents when these have been lost by the adults themselves. Children can become both the weapons and the spoils in a war they have no wish to be involved in. Furthermore, a small but fierce proportion of parents maintain high levels of dispute for some years after they separate. In the Stanford Study, for example, 34 percent of parents were engaged in conflicted relations one and a half years after the divorce, and a three and half years later 26 percent were still engaged in conflict. It is, however, difficult to predict postdivorce levels of conflict from predivorce levels and, even long after separation, the repartnering of either parent may initiate or resurrect conflict between the child's parents or introduce new sources of conflict within stepfamilies.
Page 157-9
Are there gender differences in distress following separation? Aseltine and Kessler reported greater increases in distress for woman, but other studies have not found a sex difference. One possible reason for such variation is that women generally have higher scores on depression and psychological distress scales than do men and, indeed, have higher rates of diagnosed mood disorders and treatment for these. This difference in base level makes it more likely than one will observe statistically significant changes over time for woman, just as parallel changes in drinking levels are more easily demonstrated in men.
Another reason for different findings between studies may reflect the distinction between acute and chronic stress mentioned earlier. It has been suggested that divorcing men may be particularly vulnerable to the former. Several studies have asked recently separated people to report their feelings of distress at the time of the separation and, sometimes, how they felt beforehand. Some have also inquired about consulting the family doctor because of distress, taking medication, and having time off work.
Men are indeed acutely distressed at the time of separation, and show surprisingly high rates of
help-seeking, contact with health services, and the use of medication. They are also more likely than woman to experience their first-ever period of depression at a clinically significant level.
Further light has been shed on sex differences in the acute reaction to separation, by making the distinction between initiators and not initiators of separation, since women are more likely than men to initiate separation.
Leaving and left partners have been compared after separation, to investigate whether initiators would report more preseparation and less postseparation distress than the non-initiating partners.
Left partners showed the strongest reaction to separation, regardless of gender, and it was the factor rather than gender itself that accounted for the greater acute distress of men.
Leaving partners report their time of greatest distress as being before they initiated the separation, with relief often following their decision.
Over all this area of research provides evidence that divorce and mental health each have an influence on the other. Psychiatric disorders of clinically significant levels are linked with very high rates of divorce and separation, but otherwise psychological distress does not seem to be a major factor causing divorce. Rather, it increases only during the period immediately before separation. Distress may change at the time of separation and subsequently, and factors that contribute to long-term distress in divorced parents include economic hardship for lone mothers. The chronic and acute effects of separation each have own distinctive pattern and set of influences. Acute effects are common in men and seem to reflect their lower likelihood of initiating separation and their apparent failure to see it coming when initiated by their partner. However, women show the greater psychological distress in the longer term, and are more likely to be depressed at clinically significant levels, as is the case in the general population.
Page 175-6
The typical path for families is that lone mothers and their children, after a period of disruption following separation, settle into patterns of interaction in which daughters and mothers are usually close and mothers and sons somewhat fraught. The inclusion of a partner in the mothers life means that the family has to make adaptions that are not always welcomed by the children. Relationships between mothers and children often, therefore, deteriorate when a step family is formed and observations of family interactions indicate that they oppose the children more frequently than mothers in first marriage families. Mothers in step families in the UK and USA are comparatively less positive and more negative with their children in early remarriage.
Page 186
One factor that sets the residential stepmother role apart from that of residential stepfather is the fact that after separation non-residential mothers stay in regular phone and written contact with children more than non-residential fathers do. The non-residential mothers are also more likely to take a direct and monitoring role with children and to maintain support and interest towards them. This situation is a potentially difficult one for step mothers who are taking day-to-day care of step children. Contributing to this is the still prevalent promotion of biological mothers as being uniquely important for children, in contrast to the "mythical malevolence" of step mothers, depicted over centuries of folklore. The threat to a biological mother of being replaced in her children's lives by an unrelated women has the potential to set up competition between two women for loyalty of the children, who are more likely to find themselves caught in a conflict between mother and stepmother than between father and stepfather.
Page 194
Much of the evidence considered in this chapter supports a view of stepfamilies as difficult to establish, and of relations within them requiring negotiation and definition rather than fitting and assumed template. Over 20 years ago, Cherlin described step families as incomplete institutions. Since then they have not become more "complete"; rather than continue to become more diverse, as do families in general.
Children, too, are at the same level of risk for outcomes such as distress, poor academic performance, early home and school leaving, partnerships, and parenthood, as those growing up in lone parent families. Neither an increase in household income nor two potentially parenting adults in the home ensures good outcomes for children in stepfamilies.
Page 204
Fathers have an important contribution to make to children's well-being, and their involvement has the capacity to foster development. So their absence can be a potential loss for children. However, ambivalence and tensions in the social definitions of their roles mean that there is a wide variation in men's behaviour, and their potential for contributing to psychopathology in children has been emphasised. And feed, men can be forces for good or ill in their children's lives. Father's absence can be a loss if the influence is potentially positive or an advantage if their presence would have a negative impact.
Page 228-9
If loss of a parent were the most significant damaging feature of separation then we would anticipate that its consequences would be most apparent when the loss was total and permanent. We know from the previous chapter that there is considerable variation in the extent to which non-resident parents maintain contact with their children after separation and that a significant proportion of children lose contact altogether with fathers. However, the evidence does not support the assumption that frequency of contact with non-residential parents is associated with outcomes. The quality of the relationship after separation is important, however, and this suggests again the greater relevance of factors such as parenting for children's well-being.
Page 241
Children whose parents continue to fight after separation have low self-esteem and clinically significant levels of psychological distress, which become particularly apparent more than two years after separation if postseparation family conflict continues at high levels. Hetherington has concluded that "if a conflict is going to continue, it is better for children to remain in an acrimonious two parent household than to divorce. If there is a shift to a more harmonious household a divorce is advantageous both to boys and girls."
Page 242
Interparental conflict undoubtedly puts children at considerable risk for lower
well-being. Several pathways by which conflict can affect children have been suggested. First, conflict is a direct distress for children who experience it, and children as young as 18 months show distress in the presence of parental conflict. Second, children may directly model their parents' aggressive behaviour. Third, children whose separated parents are fighting are often in a loyalty traps, where they are pressured to take sides by one parent or the other. Ways in which parental conflict and children's outcomes are linked include the disruption of parenting caused by the distress of feuding parents, and inconsistent discipline between parents arising, for example, from a desire by one parent to undermine the control of another.
Page 250
It is notable that economic support through child support payments from non-resident parents is more strongly linked with children's outcomes than money from other sources. This suggests that the father - child relationship is an important aspect of the relationship between income and outcomes since a payment of child support is linked with levels of father - child contact. More specifically, it is probably linked through the quality of father child relationships: fathers who have good relationships with their children are also more likely to pay child support.
Page 268
Policy and Practice
Children stand the best chance of developing optimally and thriving when they live in stable, happy, well functioning families. Policies and practices that optimise family's chances of nurturing children in these ways are, then, paramount, and these include economic support, affordable access to child care, and flexible workplace practices. Employers, for example, need to develop policies that enable parents to combine work and parenting, and that acknowledge different family structures. Although women are increasingly supported in some quarters in this regard, it is harder for fathers and in particular lone fathers to gain support for their parenting.
Identification of families at risk or already in distress, and support for then, will go some way in reducing rates of family breakdown. An example of this is a screening programme at postnatal checkups for new mothers in the UK, where those who indicate that their relationships are vulnerable are offered help. Positive interventions like this have a better chance of reducing family dissolution than, for example, introducing legal barriers to divorce, and should be offered regardless of family structure or marital status.
Page 272
Of particular concern is the situation where domestic violence has occurred. Is it worse for children to have contact with a parent who has abused the other, or to have no contact whatsoever with that parent? In chapter 4 the conflicting feelings of children about contact with an abuseive parent were discussed; there is little research available that compares the advantages and disadvantages for children of contact with a parent who has demonstrated violence towards a partner but not to the children.
Especially worrying in many countries is that in cases where domestic violence has occurred or has been alleged, there is no intervention until a court makes final orders. This can take up to two years, during which time children may continue to witness or even to experience abuse.
Page 273
We believe that unless there are factors such as violence or abuse that militate against contact, then ongoing parenting relationships between children and their non-residential parents should be facilitated and nurtured. This does not necessarily mean equal time with both parents, and in practice many families find that arrangement difficult to manage. It does mean active involvement by the non-residential parent in their children's lives, including providing a second home base, and communication and involvement with schools and community activities with their children.
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