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Well-Being of the Children After the Divorce
The following numbers form the quantitative backdrop for the Wallerstein
study's conclusion, which was based mainly on talking with the
children, that divorce was
not
good for these children.
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At the 15 year mark, close to 40% of the children had been in
therapy for issues related to subsequent relationships. Of this
group, half were men; half women. (This is in contrast to the
predominance of women in therapy generally, and the less-than-40%
incidence of therapy visits in the general population.)
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Among the children who are over 18 at the ten-year mark, 60
percent seem likely to get less education than their father and 45
percent seem likely to get less education than their mother.
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Most of these children graduated from high schools where 85% of
students go to college, but barely half are attending or have
completed 2 or 4 year degrees.
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Among fathers who could afford to help with college, slightly
over one third helped.
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Over 25% of the girls became sexually active in junior high
school. (This may be in contrast to the national number of 16% of
all 7th and 8th graders (of both sexes) and almost 50% of 9th-12
graders nationally. The national statistics are from a survey of
12,000 students in grades 7-12 by researchers at the University of Minnesota
and University of North Carolina. The study was reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association published in September,
1997. We do not have statistics on sexual activity in
junior high just for the general population of the San Francisco
area.)
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Thirty percent of the men who divorced in their 20's are paying
full child support (and 70% are not).
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All but one of the female children of divorce who had initially
married before age 20 were re-divorced by the 10-year follow-up
interview.
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