Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. A recent post on Next Door asked this question: What's one thing you did for your children that you would wholeheartedly recommend to other parents?
Well, my policy is almost to never post on social media, but I was tempted to reply, get married, and if at all possible, stay married. Of course, the decision to stay married is one that has to be made by both parties in a marriage.
So in many situations, a mom or dad will find themselves divorced against their will. Still, the normalization of divorce was driven by an oft-repeated myth in Western culture, especially America, the kids will be fine, and that kids need happy parents more than they need married ones. Statistically, however, children of divorce are not fine. And we now have even more evidence to prove it. A new study published at the National Bureau of Economic Research is the largest ever of its kind, tracking over a million children of divorce for over 50 years.
And the results are staggering. According to researchers Andrew Johnson, Maggie Jones, and Nolan Pope, the average household income immediately after divorce is less than half that of married parents, and it never fully recovers. Even as adults, those who are subjected to an early childhood divorce will make less money on average, about 13% less by their late 20s. And according to the authors, this loss is comparable to losing a year of education or growing up in a lower income neighborhood. Children under divorce also have a 60% higher risk of teen pregnancy and a sharp and persistent increased risk of childhood mortality.
They spend much more time separated from at least one parent. with an average distance of 100 miles between either mom or dad. Such children have a 40% higher risk of serving jail time, are half as likely to attend college. and have a forty five percent higher risk of early death as adults compared with kids whose parents stayed married.
Now none of these findings are particularly new. Enormous amounts of prior research also associates divorce with long term negative outcomes for kids. What's new here is the powerful evidence that divorce caused causes these negative outcomes. As Grant Bailey noted at the Institute for Family Studies, critics of so-called scary divorce statistics typically object that correlation is not causation. In other words, just because children of divorce are statistically poorer, live riskier lives, get less education, and go to jail more often does not mean that divorce causes these issues.
But this new study simply puts that objection to rest. By comparing not just a million sibling groups, that's a huge sample size, over 50 years, a clearly sufficient amount of time, but also comparing siblings within families, these authors were able to isolate the effects of divorce in a new way, especially when it comes to younger children. As expected, divorce proved to be a psychological and social shock to young children in a way that nothing else was prior to the divorce. According to Bailey, we now have convincing evidence, and I quote, that the negative outcomes associated with divorce are not merely from underlying household issues, but from the act of separation itself, end quote. And the authors of the study added, and I quote, again, the magnitude of these effects underscores how divorce can dramatically reshape children's outcomes and does so potentially for life.
Now of course, there are many children who do overcome the trauma of divorce and succeed and thrive in life. And there are also plenty of children from intact, wonderful, two-parent, married households who end up in prison. In other words, statistics are never destiny for individuals. But they do, especially overwhelming ones like these, suggest the inevitable for a society. And in this case, it's clear: the slogan, the kids will be fine, was a lie.
It should never be believed again. In fact, it was propaganda. and it's still being proclaimed by those invested in the sexual revolution and its false promises of freedom. Bailey, in fact, points to several recent headlines from major media outlets like Slate, the Washington Post and The New York Times, proclaiming dangerous and misleading things like divorce can be an act of radical self-love, women are divorcing and finally finding happiness in defense of divorce, and even divorce is a gift.
Well, divorce is certainly not a gift for children. It never has been. Rather, no fault divorce has been the most ambitious and widespread example of prioritizing the desires of adults over the rights and well being of children. As children's rights activist Katie Faust often says, it's a sorry society indeed that asks the weak and the helpless to sacrifice for the stronger and more mature. Ideas have consequences.
Bad ideas have victims. The bad ideas of the sexual revolution Primarily victimize children.
Now, again, it's tragic when a parent is co-opted into a divorce against their will. And in those cases, families and churches and communities have to find ways to step in and add support whenever possible. And there are many heroic single moms and dads who have ensured that their children do not become one of these statistics. God bless them and strengthen them one way that the rest of us can help them. is by learning to collectively value marriage again.
for all that it is. especially all that it is for the children. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast, and you can find a printable and shareable version of this commentary by visiting breakpoint.org.
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