Further research highlights the damaging impact of conflict on children
Professor Gordon Harold and Dr Ruth Sellers have published some hard-hitting research on the impact of inter-parental conflict and family separation on children. A link to the full paper is below, but some summary points are:
- High levels of conflict between parents are shown to have many poor outcomes for children. These include anxiety and depression, academic failure, substance abuse, conduct problems, criminality, peer problems and adversely affected brain development. Patterns of conflict can even be passed on to the next generation.
- These outcomes stretch on into adulthood. Acrimonious parental conflict is a common childhood factor in adults who experience mental ill health, relationship difficulties, substance abuse, homelessness, criminality.
- By contrast, actions designed to reduce the level of inter-parental conflict are associated with positive long-term outcomes. There are clear improvements in mental health, behaviour, school outcomes and long-term relationships.
- These positive outcomes have benefits not just for the individuals but for the whole of society. They produce widespread cost savings, ranging from the education system to the health and social care system, the civil and criminal justice system and they also produce positive future employment outcomes.
Yet again, the research shows that working together on divorce may be hard, but it really has to be the default. It’s not divorce which is the problem, it’s children being exposed to their parents in conflict. So we have to remove as much of the conflict inherent in the process as we possibly can, and make a humane system which works for families, and avoids these hugely harmful outcomes for the children caught in the middle.
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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