Summaries of Scholarly Articles
In their article, Gustavsen, Nayga, and Wu (2016) use the results of the Add Health survey to study potential links between the experience of parental divorce and the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors. The results of their analysis suggest that teenagers aged 12-18 become more likely to practice health-threatening behaviors if they have experienced parents’ divorce. Among such behaviors are smoking tobacco and marijuana, drinking alcohol, and taking highly addictive drugs. The adverse effects of divorce are more pronounced when it comes to both types of smoking, and they are roughly the same in male and female teenagers.
The article by Haimi and Lerner (2016) reviews credible academic studies devoted to the way that divorce affects children’s health and behaviors. In one study by Hetherington, the adolescent daughters of divorced parents were at least three times more likely to develop psychological problems requiring professional assistance than their peers from full families. The difference was a bit lower in males; thus, boys from divorced families experienced such problems in 26% of cases, and the children of married parents needed professional help in 10% of cases. The review article also cites multiple sources that present parental divorce as a risk factor for propensity to crime (in male participants), depression, and behavioral abnormalities.
Interviews with College Students
For this assignment, three college students (A – male, 20; B – female, 19; C – female, 20) were interviewed about the way that parental divorce had impacted them. The interviewees had experienced divorce when they were between 13 and 17 years old, and each of them reported links between that event and the degree of their well-being. As for the most important trends, all students regarded parental divorce as an extremely harmful event and claimed that it had affected their mental health and caused a lot of stress.
When asked to provide specific examples of how parental divorce impacted their well-being, students A and B mentioned developing pernicious habits, such as smoking cigarettes on a regular basis. The response given by student C was focused on changes to her behavior and social skills as she mentioned becoming more avoidant and distracted at school right after her parents’ separation. The question about changes in the mood and the emergence of any alarming mental health symptoms also revealed some interesting trends. Students A and C reported negative changes in self-esteem and experiencing bad mood more frequently than before, whereas student B mentioned increased aggression towards peers.
Interview Findings in the Context of Scholarly Research
There are many common trends between the findings summarized above and the results reported by Gustavsen et al. (2016) and Haimi and Lerner (2016). To begin with, two out of three students mentioned developing an addiction to tobacco products as the consequence of stress caused by parental divorce. Interestingly, as Gustavsen et al. (2016) conclude, divorce increases the risks of health-threatening habits in teenagers, with smoking being one of the most frequent outcomes.
Additionally, Haimi and Lerner (2016) cite findings, according to which parents’ divorce increases the risks of depressive disorders in adolescents. Concerning disorders, although no actual medical diagnoses were mentioned, two out of three interviewees reported having frequent episodes of low mood after the event.
At the same time, not all of the trends reported by modern researchers find reflection in the conducted interviews. For instance, as Haimi and Lerner (2016) state, male adolescents whose parents have divorced may exhibit an increased propensity to crime. The interviews did not reveal trends peculiar to the explicit desire to commit inappropriate and illegal acts. One participant mentioned becoming more aggressive towards peers, but it was a female student. Another way of how trends from the interviews and the articles are disconnected refers to the higher risks of mental health issues after parental divorce for females reported by Haimi and Lerner (2016). These differences do not find reflection in the students’ responses, which is probably the result of limitations peculiar to the sample size.
References
Gustavsen, G. W., Nayga, R. M., & Wu, X. (2016). Effects of parental divorce on teenage children’s risk behaviors: Incidence and persistence. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 37(3), 474-487.
Haimi, M., & Lerner, A. (2016). The impact of parental separation and divorce on the health status of children, and the ways to improve it. Journal of Clinical & Medical Genomics, 4(1), 1-7.