Essay on Child and Adolescent Issue -
Contemporary Issue: Critical Review of a Given Report
Many years of
researches have indicated that the impact of divorce/separation on children is
very severe. The long-term process of parental separation is an end towards a
beginning. Children are faced with the two most important issues as the outcome
of parental separation, their parents’ separation and the acknowledgement of the
fact that it would be unlikely that they would be having a normal family life
again, with their biological mother and biological father. One of the researches
conducted by Amanda Wade and Carol Smart, supported by the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation outlines such issues as the aftereffects of parental separation on
children and their world thereafter. What it would be like to lose a parent and
live in a broken home? What are the impacts of having social fathers and social
mothers? What is the child require and demands of their real parents?
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The answers are probed by questioning a sample of students taken from four
different schools of the Yorkshire locality. The report highlights that the
absence of a parent-figure is not the most influential feature of separation for
children's development. However, what the report has emphasized is the point
that girls are usually more influenced by the event of separation than boy. This
is a point that I need not to contend with. We know that sentimentally, girls
are more emotional then boys are. This might be attributed for two reasons,
their own vulnerability and expressiveness, where as the boys tend to ignore the
whole issue. Notwithstanding the fact that they too are affected by the
procedure. It is just that they are not expressive that much as girls is. Thus,
in the report, the emphasis is not much validated by evidences and material
proof.
Rather, for every point that was emphasized, there were not much validated
proof, except some questioning. One thing to note is that the sample was too
small to reach any conclusion. On my part I believe that the diversity brought
about in the report by the selection of four different schools was not really
diversity. Rather, it was a convenient sampling, on part of the researchers as
it included children of nearly the same family background with respect to the
financial and social stability. If it had been a sample taken from schools of
varied cultural and financial background pupil, the findings would have been
more validated.
Other thing to note is the fact that the report, however does say about the
feelings of children through presenting answers to questionnaire all over the
report, but it does not say much s to how they feel and how they reacted at the
time of separation. This was the main point that needed to be emphasized on in
the report, but other things were given more consideration than this thing.
Also, the methodology that is the questionnaire and the data collection
procedure were not appropriate for this kind of survey. First, the questionnaire
that would have been designed, as it is not included in the appendix, and we
would not come to know as to what was the complete questionnaire, contains
open-ended questions. The probing has been done nicely, but the matter that
needs to critical is the fact that if there would have been closed ended
questions, the compilation of results would not have been much of a problem,
rather the findings would have been more validated by mathematical models that
just assumptions and presumptions. Here, I must say that, nevertheless, the
findings are very informative, but they fail to validate any of the points
mentioned in the report.
Like in the report, it is emphasized that the children tend to cope with the
aftereffects by their own devised methods, precisely in two ways, that were
either diversion, or expression. This theme was in fact projected by answers to
questionnaires, but not validated by any model. Another thing that needs
consideration in the report is the formation of the types of family structures
in the beginning of the report. The distinctions like between aggravated and the
blemished family structures are not quite clear. Rather the distinction tends to
overlap one another. So any results that were concluded on the basis of such
distinctions tend to falsify. Researcher have constituted that the recent
continuation for the trend of the divorce in many family would eventually result
in more than a third of new marriages ending in divorcee in the next 20 years,
and that more than one in four children will experience parental divorce by age
16. Statistics reveals that the Divorce rates in England and Wales are among the
highest in Europe, though considerably less than in the United States. The
researches also concludes that the aftermath of separation would likely result
in the factors that contribute to the financial inferiority among the children,
and they tend to be among the disadvantaged both in the short and long term.
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The report that interviewed children form the age bracket of 5-9 years old,
finds out that the children around the time of separation wish that their
parents had stayed together and hope they will get back together after a while.
While some believed that it is unlikely. They experience low self-esteem and are
unconfident about their position, both in the social gathering in the school and
at home. To adapt to the change, the report further highlights the fact that the
good, continuing communication and contact between children and both parents
appear especially important in assisting children. Clarity of the events that
happens around them usually helps them to cope with the situation in an
appropriate manner, rather than hiding. Hiding things from children would make
them more inquisitive of their parents’ virtues. This point needed further
elaboration in the report. Further where there were violent acts and
demonstrations between children, there is nothing to reveal, as children already
would have perceive the situation. But in that instance too, parents should take
the children in to confidence and make them understand the situation, so that it
would be easier for them to adjust toward the problem. It would also make them
feel important, a thing that needs to be adopted, as it’s the wish of every
child, rather its the child’s psychology that they need to feel important in the
eyes of both of their parents.
A reassurance of presence, when one of the parents leaves the home, which is
usually the father, is very necessary so that the children may not feel
abandoned. However, the sudden and instantaneous distress that arises due to
separation gradually fades away with time, and most of the children settle into
a pattern of normal development. They tend to adapt to the new situation and
compromise with the fate they have to endure. Sometimes the children better
adapts to the situations when any one of their biological parents is not around
and they have to contend with their social parents.
Though, there is no direct link made in the report that children between the
ages of 5-7 experience most, but I think that report is thus based on the
assumption. This is contrary to the findings of other researches that say that
age does not matter where the effects of separation are to be taken in to
account.
Thus, the project was
completed in isolation of other researches and does not take in to consideration
of prior findings.
Also there is not statistical inference of the data collected, thus, further
posing a question of the validity of the findings. I think that there was a
limitation on the part of the researchers, due to the questionnaire design. If
it would have been a more precise questionnaire, than, I believe that the
inference and then the interpretation of the date would have been in a more
appropriate manner. Other researches indicate that as a dictum many adverse
outcomes are roughly twice as prevalent among children of divorced families
compared with children from intact families. In the beginning of the report it
was mentioned that the first stage of the report tends to probe into, just
minimally, and just gathers the opinion upon serration from children with or
without the family separation background. However, the research fails to
identify clearly the difference in the after-effects of separation or no
separation. However, what the report does indicate in a likeable manner is that
children tend to achieve less in socio-economic terms. Further, the report fails
to analyse fully the behavioural problems that tend to arise due to the parental
separation. The phenomena of bedwetting, withdrawn behaviour, aggression,
delinquency and other antisocial behaviour needed further emphasis.
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Also there is no indication in the report as to the performance of children at
school and at extra curricular activities. So as much, the report gives no
further indication as to the long-term effects of the parental separation. To me
this point needs praise, and also criticism. To praise is the notion that the
report stayed on the track and stickled to its objective. The point to criticize
is that the report again concluded in isolation in findings. Assuming a set of
boundaries (like age group) could not have, in my opinion, fully revealed the
aftereffects, both in the long term and of course in the short tem.
Also there is neither physical nor mental health problems probed in the report.
There was no mention of teacher’s attitude towards the children of separated
families from the teacher’s perspective.
The important thing
that the report highlighted is the counseling efforts, projected on both the
parents and teaches in making the child adjust to the new situation and face and
also cope with the problems at hand. Various techniques are highlighted, that
are important one incorporated in the schools environment. The “sharing circle”
may be an attempt to assuage the problem. However, it did not specifically meant
to serve the purpose. The report has a shortcoming in the sense that it did not
cover the area when the children go through the separation process and
separation event. There is no clear-cut distinction made between the two, and
how do children behave or would tend to behave in these tow different
circumstances. There are mentions from the questionnaire answers about how they
fee, but there is no clear-cut interpretation of the answers.
The report also highlights that there are various adjustments that children have
to make in separated families, most obviously that of no longer living with both
parents. Subsequently, if both the parents form new partnerships, they may
experience a further transition into a household comprising one birth parent,
another adult and, sometimes, stepsiblings. However, the research does not
clarify if only one of the parents forms new partnership. These areas needs
further probing. Other research findings for children from stepfamilies suggest
a number of ways in which they do not manage as well as those from intact
families and, in some instances, not as well as those from lone-parent families.
However, the risk, as mention in other researches, of adverse outcomes for young
people in stepfamilies compared with those in lone-parent families appears
higher for older children, especially in areas of educational achievement and
family relationships. What the report under study needs further to probe in is
that assumption that young children in step-families seem to manage better,
because of the notion that is much more easier to adapt to a new family
structure at an age when they have had a relatively short period of living with
either both or just one birth parent.
References
Wade, Amanda and Carol Smart, “Facing family change Children’s circumstances,
strategies and resources”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2002
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