Teachers' and School Children's Stereotypic Perception of the Child of Divorce: 20 Years Later

ABSTRACT

This is a replica of a study carried out in 1988. Its main objective is to reexamine after 20 years how teachers' and 8th-grade students' evaluations of a child's academic, social, and emotional functioning are affected by the knowledge that the child's parents are divorced. One hundred and twenty junior high school students and 115 female teachers watched a specially produced film of a child engaged in various activities. The child's gender and family structure were experimentally manipulated. The main results show that whereas in the earlier study both teachers and the students rated the child of divorce more negatively than the child of an intact family, in this study this was true only for the teachers. These and other results are discussed in the context of cultural attitudes, the more extensive contact teachers have with children of divorce, and the risk that they and their students become trapped in the Pygmalion cycle.     

School-based Groups for Children of Divorce

Over a million children under the age of 18 are involved annually in the breakup of their families through divorce. The majority receive no support to help them cope with the crisis. This paper proposes the establishment of situation/transition groups within the schools, led by school mental health personnel: school psychologists, social workers, and guidance counselors. The groups provide immediate crisis intervention and ongoing support to children of divorcing parents, as a means of preventing the development of psychopathology.     

The Divorce Workshop as Crisis Intervention

It has been pointed out that society offers little or no help to the individual in the crisis of divorce. Woman's Place, a feminist organization serving lower Fairfield County, Connecticut, through a series of six weekly workshops, has offered, to approximately 500 women, over a period of five years an opportunity to explore the realities of divorce. Experienced professional women volunteer as leaders in a supportive and objective milieu. They provide expert information on coping with their new single identity, handling children, finances, and the legal aspects of divorce. A final session focuses on growth through the mastery of their crisis. A two and one-half year follow up confirms the sustaining value of the program. There has been no decrease in demand since the inception of the program, and a waiting list is often maintained. Communities are urged to replicate this inexpensive, useful workshop series as crisis intervention.     

Children's involvement in their parents' divorce: implications for practice

The paper reports findings from a research study that explored children's experience of divorce. It shows that children experience parental divorce as a crisis in their lives but that they are able to mobilise internal and external resources to regain a new point of balance. In doing so, children demonstrate the degree to which they are active and competent participants in the process of family dissolution. The implications of the data are then considered in relation to engaging with children involved in divorce and in relation to some of the cultural presumptions that might militate against hearing what they have to say about their experiences. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional Safeguarding: Exploring the Nature of Middle‐Class Parents’ School Involvement1

Although discussion of parents’ school involvement generally surrounds academic success, there are also emotional motivations for parents’ school interventions. In this exploratory analysis, based on interviews with 21 parents and teachers, I show how these middle‐class parents’ concerns for children extend beyond grades and academic success to the children’s own emotional comfort with schooling. I discuss examples of emotional safeguarding, a parental practice to protect children’s happiness at school. Results also suggest that emotional and academic concerns for children at school are interrelated, and parents often approach the emotional with the academic in mind. Parents focus on reducing children’s anxiety or discomfort at school with the ultimate goal of instilling a love of learning. The parents in this study perceive an emotional route to achieving academic success for their middle‐class children. Unlike parents, teachers in the study identify parents’ concerns as academic or a product of parents’ anxiety. This research introduces the possibility that while parents’ academic concerns are very real, they are also accompanied by equal and occasionally greater concerns for children’s happiness and well‐being at school.     

Helping The School Cope With Children Of Divorce

Prior to 1976, there was no systematic research reported regarding the impact of divorce on school age children- the largest group affected by divorce. It has since been established and widely accepted that school age children of divorce are considered a population at risk. The school is an excellent potential resource for these children at risk. Children of divorce may manifest problems at school while none is observable in the home setting. Parents, therefore, cannot be relied upon to always identify problems resulting from the divorce. School personnel, and especially teachers who have the most contact with the students, need to be aware of the common problems associated withdivorceseenwithin theschoolsetting and how to intervene. The effects of learning and school performance, peer relationships, relationships with teachers and other adult school personnel will be explored and literature cited to clarify the educational and social effects of divorce as seen within theschool. Intervention methods will be proposed.     

“It Is Not a Big Deal,I Can Do It,Too”: Influence of Parental Divorce on Professional Women's Marital Experience in Turkey

This article reports on a study of how parental divorce affects the marriage and divorce experiences of professional women in Turkey. Drawing on the retrospective accounts of eight professional women in relation to their own divorce and those of their parents, this study highlights the role of parental divorce and cultural context in adult children's attitudes, beliefs, and experiences regarding their own union formation. Based on this small qualitative sample, results demonstrate that parental divorce affected women's entire lives, with considerable impact on their commitment to marriage and view of divorce in general. They learn from their parents that marriages can be broken when they do not function properly. As a result, instead of being more patient or self- sacrificing, as is frequently advised to women in Turkish society, the women in this study readily tended toward divorce as a viable solution to marital problems.     

The Coparental Relationship of Divorced Spouses:

The authors examined the effects of divorce on the school behavior of a sample of 32 second, third, and fourth grade children. Results suggested that coparental relationsip variables (such as frequency and quality of interaction) may be more significant influences on children's school behavior than the marital status of their parents. In this regard: (1) only one significant differences was found in the school behavior of children from divorced and those from the control group of intact families; (2) regression analyses did not select family status as a significant predictor of problem variables and children's school behavior. These results have implications for teachers and for mental health professionals who counsel post-divorce families.     

The education of children and adolescents in out-of-home care: a problem or an opportunity? Results of a longitudinal study

The education of children in care is an issue that often falls into a no man’s land in which responsibility always seems to be attributed to the other ‘department’. Furthermore, all too often, teachers, educators and foster parents find themselves working with these children with no support, as if they were isolated cases. The aim of this study is to get to know the school situation of children in different types of out-of-home care: residential, kinship and non-kinship care. Systematic data on the school situation of 11–16-year-olds (on class attendance, school behaviour, academic results and guidance towards post-compulsory education) were gathered over a period of 5 consecutive school years. A 3-year longitudinal study on the same items (N?=?391) was made and time-series data were gathered for 5 years (N?=?1841). Results show that the in-care population is at a clear disadvantage and inequality of opportunities compared to the general population in relation to their educational pathways and outcomes; the most disadvantaged being the population in residential care. Recommendations are included, posing the challenge that what has to date been considered a ‘problem’ should become an opportunity for these children.     

Effects of Parental Divorce on Children's Financial Support for College Students

No-fault divorce laws, and the lowering of the age of minority from 21 to 18 years have combined to have unintended negative impact on the children of divorce. Previous research has shown that children whose parents are divorced are at increased risk for emotional problems and a reduced standard of living. This study was conducted to learn more about the effects of parental divorce on a young person's access to a college education. A questionnaire was developed to learn how students pay for college, and what non-financial support they receive from parents. The questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample 9 of 19 students at a state university. Findings indicated that young people whose parents were divorced received higher Pell grants, were more likely to provide more of their own necessities, and were more likely to repay their college loans themselves. Further, young people whose parents were divorced were much more likely to have their material and fnancial needs met by their custodial parents rather than their noncustodial parents. Implications are that young people with divorced parents may have less financial support for college from their family, and the support they receive is much more likely to come from their custodial than noncustodial parent. Changes in child support laws and financial aid policies are recommended.     

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children

I use a divorce‐stress‐adjustment perspective to summarize and organize the empirical literature on the consequences of divorce for adults and children. My review draws on research in the 1990s to answer five questions: How do individuals from married and divorced families differ in well‐being? Are these differences due to divorce or to selection? Do these differences reflect a temporary crisis to which most people gradually adapt or stable life strains that persist more or less indefinitely? What factors mediate the effects of divorce on individual adjustment? And finally, what are the moderators (protective factors) that account for individual variability in adjustment to divorce? In general, the accumulated research suggests that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people's lives. But people vary greatly in their reactions. Divorce benefits some individuals, leads others to experience temporary decrements in well‐being, and forces others on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully. Understanding the contingencies under which divorce leads to these diverse outcomes is a priority for future research.     

Social workers as teacher consultants: Helping teachers in groups to meet special needs in ordinary schools

Abstract

The paper argues in favour of school-based consultation for teachers by psychodynamically informed social workers, in the light of increasing awareness and demands that every teacher should become able to respond appropriately to the many children in ordinary classrooms deemed to be in need of special understanding at some stage during their school career. The paper tries to show that to enable them to help children with special emotional difficulties in school, teachers need access to some of the expertise, principles and practices with which professionals outside the school system manage to meet such children's special needs; and that the skills and understanding of social workers would appear to be well adaptable to the requirements of such inter-professional consultancy, provided some basic conditions are understood. These conditions are highlighted, and illustrated by a case discussion.     

An Australian Paperbound-Books Library Shelf for Social Work Students

This article explores the links between two areas of practice—working with families involved in divorce or with children in care. There are many parallels between such apparently different kinds of work. Children and parents in both situations experience a sense of grief and loss. The children become part of two families: how well they manage this reflects how the adults involved cope. Some strategies can help in both areas such as encouraging shared decision-making, using written agreements and having a neutral person to negotiate with.     

Children's narratives of post-divorce family life: from individual experience to an ethical disposition

This article draws on interviews with 60 children and young people to explore how they construct narrative accounts of post‐divorce family life. Rather than seeking to describe children's experiences as if their accounts are simple factual recollections, the focus of the article is on how young people position themselves in their narratives and the ways in which they construct their past experiences. It is argued that these narratives are multi‐layered, often revealing ambivalence and contradictions. The conclusion turns to the question of whether these individual accounts can give rise to what might be referred to as an ethical disposition in which children's experiences can inform a broader social ethos on how to divorce ‘in the proper manner’.     

“He’s My Dad Because He Just Is!”: Cohabiting (Step)Children’s Responses to Discursive Challenges

Cohabiting (step)families have become one of the fastest growing family forms in the United States. This study explored the types of discursive challenges experienced by cohabiting (step)children, as well as the ways in which cohabiting (step)children might respond to potential challenges of legitimacy. In this study, we interviewed 28 (step)children who resided with 1 biological parent and their parent’s nonmarital partner for at least 2 years. Results demonstrate that despite recent increases in prevalence and acceptance of unmarried partner households, cohabiting (step)children are often called on to explain their family’s legitimacy through accounting strategies when they experience discursive challenges to their (step)family’s form.     

Integration of Childhood Immigrants in the Short and Long Run – Swedish Evidence1

Immigrant children are often at a disadvantage at school while they adjust to their new environment. It has been found that the age at immigration of 7 or above represents a sensitive period as regards these children’s school performance for two main reasons: they have passed their prime age for language learning, and their acquisition of subject skills is less efficient while they learn to master the new language. Using Swedish administrative data, we track childhood immigrants born between 1972 and 1976 over time from adolescence (at 16) to adulthood (at 30), and study the role of age at immigration for educational and labor market outcomes. We find that immigration at a sensitive age (compared to a very young age) has a strong negative impact on compulsory school performance, but that the same individuals catch up strongly in terms of final educational attainment. In spite of this educational catching up, however, we find a considerable negative impact on earnings for men. We are able to rule out two potential mechanisms behind this puzzling result: It cannot be explained either by an impact on the chosen field of study or on completion time.     

School readiness of low-income children at risk for school failure

The goal of this research project was to gain information about the readiness skills of kindergarten children in 11 inner city schools with the highest poverty rates in the Salt Lake City School District. Kindergarten teachers and principals in these schools were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the readiness skills needed for these children to be successful in their schools. A summary of the readiness skills of the kindergarten children was derived from a state mandated Pre-Kindergarten Assessment. Most principals stressed children's social and emotional development as a priority in school readiness. The majority of teachers emphasized literacy as a prerequisite for school success. Yet, the Pre-Kindergarten Assessment revealed that one fourth of the children could not identify the front of a book and two thirds of the children did not know where to start or which direction to go when reading. Half of the parents of these children reported that they rarely read to their children and that they had only visited a library once or not at all. The gap between the readiness skills educators think these children need and the skills children enter school with presents a serious problem for educators and policy makers. Multiple intervention strategies are recommended including providing education and home activities to enhance children's readiness skills, coordinating access to early childhood programs, and educating parents on available community resources.     

Saint Paul and Divorce

Many divorced Christians believe that in divorce they have betrayed their Christian faith. Counselors and ministers can help divorced Christians to understand that (a) not all human troubles are the consequence of moral failure, (b) the apostle Paul's strict teachings on divorce can be evaluated in light of his other teachings, (c) Paul's strict view of divorce had the surprising consequence of advancing women's rights, and (d) Paul and the Church have themselves not been able to escape contributing to dissension and estrangement. The purpose of this paper is to encourage divorce counselors to help their disturbed Christian clients to appreciate Saint Paul's doctrine of divorce in historical perspective.     

CHANGE, DISENGAGEMENT, AND RENEWAL: RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS BETWEEN YOUNG ADULTS AND THEIR FATHERS AFTER DIVORCE

Little is known about children's perceptions of their parents' divorce or how children construct meaning around the divorce and their subsequent relationships with their parent. The focus of this was to learn about the experiences and the meanings young adults had constructed about the divorce process and their relationships with their fathers in the years after the divorce. The findings revealed a broad spectrum of experiences and several key issues that gave meaning to both the disengagement and the reengagement with their fathers. Loss, acceptance, availability, and support are a few of the vital issues addressed. Implications for family therapists are discussed.