Blackwell Reference Online

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The issue of how children are affected by parental divorce has arguably evoked as much controversy as has any other topic in the social sciences. The controversy reflects the importance and timeliness of the topic – in the beginning of the twenty-first century, Census Bureau data indicate that at least 50 to 60 percent of children in the United States will spend some period of time before they reach 18 in a home in which divorce has occurred ( Harvey & Fine 2004 ). One-third or more of the children in the United States will live in a stepfamily by the time they reach 18 ( Coleman et al. 2000 ). Similar rates have been found in other western countries ( Barber & Demo 2006 ). Further, when children experience the divorce of their parents, they become approximately twice as likely to divorce themselves as adults ( Amato 2000 ). This debate has recently extended into the popular press, with the publication of two books by prominent scholars: Wallerstein et al. (2000) and Hetherington and Kelly (2002) . These two sets of researchers reached quite different conclusions regarding the effects of divorce on children. Wallerstein and her colleagues concluded that as many as 50 percent of the young people in their sample became worried, underachieving, self-deprecating, and sometimes angry because of their parents’ divorces. By contrast, Hetherington and colleagues found that there ... log in or subscribe to read full text