Divorce is now correlated less with culture, and more with lower education, lack of economic opportunity, and educational/economic divergence within marriages, according to "Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce Is Changing the Face of Its Families" - NYTimes.com 2/23/11, By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ROBERT GEBELOFF.
On the Family Scholars Blog, Amber Lapp notes that the article does not talk about the impact on children, and quotes a rural high school teacher who commented on the Times story:
... I am torn between the belief that these stats show a growing empowerment for women, while witnessing everyday what divorce does to the children. I always believed when I was in high school that divorce wasn’t a big deal, and that the children of divorce were ok. Now, as an adult, I can see first hand….they’re not. I see everyday the way these children have been affected, and it is rarely for the positive. As an English teacher the number one thing I hear about in student writing is the loss of a 2 parent household, and the damage it has caused them, even at 17 & 18. Something needs to be done to better promote positive marriages and to explain that divorce has very real repercussions for the children left after a split ...
Comments