A divorce is a major life event that can deeply affect the divorcing parties. Thus, it is hardly surprising that, if the divorcing parties have kids, the kids can be significantly impacted as well. Sometimes, kids will exhibit behavioral changes following a divorce. Recently, a study reached some interesting findings regarding which children are particularly prone to behavioral changes after their parents divorce.
Data regarding close to 4,000 kids from throughout the nation was used in this study. Researchers looked at several things in their review of this data, including whether a child’s age and the wealth of the family they are a part of were at all associated with how big of behavioral changes they experienced following a separation of their parents.
The study found that a child’s vulnerability to such post-separation behavioral changes is highest when they are between the ages of 3 and 5.
The study also found that, for children under 5, what the income of their family is may have impacts on their proneness to post-separation behavioral changes. However, the findings may be different from what you would expect. You might think that children from wealthy families, due to the higher level of resources they have access to, might be less likely to be significantly affected by a divorce. However, the study found that kids in higher-income families actually, generally, experienced bigger behavioral changes post-separation than kids in families with lower incomes. What do you think is the cause of this perhaps-unexpected result?
A divorce can be a very detailed affair that touches on many important issues. Thus, situations do sometimes arise in which divorcing parents may feel pulled to let their focus entirely fall on the legal matters of the divorce and to take their focus off of other important and vital things, such as doing their best to help their kids adjust to the changes the divorce will bring about. It is important for parents to avoid succumbing to the pull towards such tunnel vision, as losing sight of the issue of how the kids are handling the divorce can be detrimental to the kids and the family as a whole.
Experienced family law attorneys can help divorcing parents with the navigation of the legal matters of a divorce so that such parents have more energy to devote to the things in life that are of the highest importance, like their kids.