What happens when Children are denied Equal Shared Parenting

What Happens When Children Are Denied Equal Shared Parenting (1)

o Psychological and Health Problems

* Greater Behavioural Problems. Single parent children are 3 to 4 times more likely to have emotional or behavioural problems (2)

* Greater Psychological Problems. 84% of teenagers hospitalised for psychiatric care come from single parent homes (3)

* Higher Suicide Rate. 75% of teenagers who commit suicide are from single parent homes (4)

* More Drug Abuse. Children from father-absent homes are:
twice as likely to use drugs (including alcohol)(5) , and
4.3 times more likely to smoke (6) .

* Greater Frequency of Sleep Disorders. Single parent children have more trouble falling asleep, more nightmares, and night terrors (7)

* More Persistent Feelings Of Betrayal, Rejection, Rage, Guilt, Pain. Father-absent children experience greater levels of these feelings which last for years with a renewed intensity at adolescence (8)

* Lower Self-Esteem. Children from single parent households suffer from lower self-esteem - especially girls (9)

* Child Abuse escalates after the breakdown of a structured and stable family unit (10)


THE KEY QUESTION

‘In whose interest is it, for the current situation to continue?’



(1) Dads in Distress Website
(2)Zill and Schoenborn, National Center for Health Statistics, 1990
(3)1989 study, cited by Hewlett, When the Bough Breaks
(4)Elshtain, The Christian Century, 1993
(5)1988 UCLA study, cited by Hewlett
(6)Stanton, Oci, and Silva, 1994 survey of 1037 15-year-olds
(7)Psychiatrist Alfred Messer, cited by Hewlett
(8)Wallerstein and Kelly, 1980, Surviving the Breakup
(9)Family Court Case FP No 003/59/01
(10)Family Court Case FAM - 2003-009-001936