Expert opinion: The effect of divorce and separation on children

DIVORCE and separation damage children. That was the view of Professor Patricia Casey in 1995 and it still is today.

Ahead of the divorce referendum, the Professor of Psychiatry at the Mater Hospital and UCD was asked by Fianna Fáil to provide a discussion document on the effects of divorce and separation on children. Looking at international research she found that children find divorce and separation traumatic. Although she did not campaign for either side during the referendum, the document was seen to support the No side.

“I felt I was misrepresented when the document was published and so I had to make a statement to clarify my position as a professional. The research has been fairly consistent for the last 10 to 15 years. Children do suffer adverse consequences when their parents divorce or separate,” she said.

Obviously she says it depends on the level of crisis each marriage is in before people can judge whether it is better to separate. “If there is violence or abuse, clearly it is better for those people to separate. Violence is degrading, humiliating and dangerous and it is not what marriage is about. I advise all my patients to separate if there is violence or abuse in the relationship, whether they are men or women.

“But if you feel your marriage has gone stale or that you just want out, then that is different. Children are damaged by separation and divorce. During the divorce referendum there was misinformation that in any bad marriage it was better to separate. The research shows that is not the case.

“Nobody should delude themselves that divorce is easy. Keeping a bad marriage together is difficult, but protecting children after a divorce can be even more difficult. Couples need to realise this.”

She says that during the 1995 divorce referendum one bishop said that separated children experience loss more profoundly than if the parent had died. “There was a massive brouhaha at the time, but he was actually right. The research has found that.

“Children from divorced families do less well academically, have less social skills and are at greater risk of depression, studies by Judith Wallerstein of the University of California at Berkeley found. It is not because of financial depravation, but the effect of the breakup itself .

“This is not to say that every child from a divorced family will suffer from that divorce because we are not talking about individuals. The studies look at larger groups of people over a long period of time,” she said.

One impact of divorce is the growing number of absent fathers, which Prof Casey feels is contributing to juvenile crime. She believes Chief Justice Ronan Keane was right when he said recently that absent fathers are contributing to the rise of juvenile crime and lawlessness.

“Single parents find it harder to discipline and it can be less effective. When you have an absent father, children, especially boys, have no real persistent model of masculinity. Boys need a constant male figures to help them learn how to behave and react to problems. Without a father, they rely on teachers or TV. Teachers are only there for part of the day, and TV and soap opera characters are not suitable as the prime educators for role models,” she said.

It has just been seven years since divorce was introduced and, already, we are beginning to see the fallout from the rising number of single parent households. Census 2002 revealed that there were 130,364 families headed by a lone mother and 23,499 headed by a lone father.

But Prof Casey feels it is too early to judge the impact of divorce on society.

“With any social event, it can take a generation to see what the impact will be,” she said.