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Higher-Income Families: Children Have Tougher Time With Divorce [Study]

Our online divorce review site enjoys keeping up with trends in divorce research, and today, we’ve got a really interesting find.

Georgetown University and the University of Chicago conducted a recent study using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics starting in 1979, to observe how children reacted over time to divorce, separation and other adjustments in their family unit.

Looking at low-, middle-, and high-income families, the team discovered that children from higher income homes had a more difficult time behaviorally with the divorce.

The Methodology

According to the Huffington Post, the study was completed by taking a nationally representative sample of close to 4,000 children born to the female respondents of the NLSY survey, who were aged 14 to 21 when it began in 1979.

“In 1986, the NLSY researchers began looking at these women’s children, biennially assessing their health, development and well-being through interviews with their mothers,” HuffPo explained. “These mothers were questioned about family structures, household income and the socio-emotional state of their children, which allowed the Georgetown and University of Chicago researchers to analyze that longitudinal data and draw conclusions about the children’s behavioral outcomes. Children were observed between birth and age 12, and the data was collected from 1986 until 2008.”

The survey assessed negative outcomes by using two basic categories: externalizing behaviors — “things like aggression, defiance and bullying,” HuffPo notes — and internalizing behaviors — “things like sadness, anxiety, nervousness and low self-esteem.”

“Again,” HuffPo adds, “these were all deduced from interviews with the children’s mothers.”

“We divided the sample into high-, medium- and low-income families and we found, in fact, that parental separation or divorce really only impacted the children in the top income group,” said Rebecca M. Ryan, assistant professor in the department of psychology at Georgetown University and one of the lead researchers of the study. “But we did a better job of demonstrating that that’s true and a less of a good job explaining why that might be true.”

The HuffPo report on this study is quite a lengthy one, and we suggest checking it out if you would like to hear more of the speculation as to why this is the case.

However, here are some takeaways that higher and middle income families need to remember:

1. It’s not about the money. Your child doesn’t necessarily find comfort in material possessions and financial stability, especially when his entire world has been altered in a way that is less common among your socio-economic group.

2. Happiness to your children is more about relationships and stability. Effective co-parenting is so important at this point, so be sure to respect each other as parents even if you have some tension and hostility remaining between you personally.

3. Don’t lose the connection you have with your child by trying to use them as a pawn to “get at” your ex.

Of course, how you exit the marriage will play a big role in how well your child transitions, and our online divorce reviews can point you toward some of the best sites for handling your divorce in an efficient, affordable manner. Best of luck as you move forward!

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