A new study was published in the American Sociological Review regarding the impact of divorce on children. The study followed children grades kindergarten through fifth, and found no impact prior to the divorce but significant decreases in performance in math and social skills of the children at the time of and following the divorce.
The results are surprising in that children do not show any decrease in performance prior to a divorce, when tensions are higher at home. However, children are not faced with the changes until after the parents physically separate and new schedules of time are introduced. The child at that point is forced to have a different home life and family experience, which is what the study found to have the greatest impact.
According to the study, the effects last after the time of the divorce because the children struggled while learning the basic skills that are built off of in later years.
This study illustrates the importance of making sure your children are being taken care of during the divorce process. You cannot prevent things from affecting them, but you can limit the effects by making sure they have a counselor or some other adult to talk to and extra help at school if they are struggling. Also, change is inevitable in divorce but limiting it as much as possible will help your children in the long run.
