Divorce and KidsDivorce is transforming the lives of American children.In the past World War2 generation, more than 80 percent of children grew up with both biological parents. Today only half will do so. Each yearmore than a million children experience family breakup: about as many are born out of wedlock. At the same time, the problems associated with family disruption have grown. Overall child well-being has declined,despite historically high public spending. The teen suicide rate has almost tripled. Juvenile crime has increased and become more violent. School performance has been poor. In 1971 Judith Wallerstein, a clinical psychologist, and her staff began interviewing middle-class children in the San Francisco area at the time their parents broke up. She discovered the children seemed to be doing worse. Five years after breakup, her research shows, more than a third of the children were experiencing moderate or severe depression. At ten years a significant number to be troubled, drifting, underachieving. At 15 years many, now adults, were struggling to establish strong love relationships of their own. Research shows that girls in single-parent families are at greater risk for teenage marriage, nonmarital birth, and divorce than girls in two-parent families---and that this is true regardless of race or income. Also, children in disrupted families are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school. Boys are at greater risk of dropping out than girls and are more prone to aggressive behavior. Over the past 25 years Americans have been conducting a vast natural experiment in family life. The results are becoming clear. Adults have benefited from the changes, but not children. Indeed, this may be the first generation to do worse psychologically and socially than their parents. The novelist Pat Conroy has observed that"each divorce is the death of a small civilization. "No one feels this more acutely than children.
离婚与孩子 离婚正在改变美国孩子的生活。在二战后成长起来的一代人中，有80％以上的孩子都在亲生父母身边长大。今天只有50％的孩子是如此，每年有100多万的孩子经历家庭破裂。这与私生子女的数量大体相当。 与此同时，由于家庭破裂所带来的问题日渐增多。尽管政府公共开支历来很大，孩子的总体福利却下降了。青少年自-率翻了三番，青少年犯罪率也上升了，他们的行为也增加了，他们在学校的表现也一直不好。 1971年，临床心理学家朱迪斯·沃勒斯坦和她的研究人员走访了旧金山地区父母离异的中产阶级家庭的孩子，她发现孩子的情况每况愈下。她的研究发现，在父母离异五年后，有1／3多的孩子患有中度或严重的抑郁症。10年后，许多孩子生活困难，漂泊流浪，学习成绩不理想。15年后，这些孩子长大cr，他们就拼命建立自己牢固的爱情关系。 研究表明，单亲家庭的女孩比双亲家庭的女孩更可能未成年就结婚，非婚生育，更易于离婚——·不管她们是何种肤色，收入如何，情况都是如此。 同时，破裂家庭的孩子的退学率比健全家庭的孩子的退学率高出一倍。男孩比女孩更易退学，也更容易寻衅闹事。
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