Archives For family breakdown

A Three-City Study: Kids report first sexual intercourse at 12 years old

August 14, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: A Three-City Study: Kids report first sexual intercourse at 12 years old

A new Iowa State study of nearly 1,000 low-income families in three major cities found that one in four children between the ages of 11 and 16 reported having sex, with their first sexual intercourse experience occurring at the average age of 12.77. The study was co-authored by Brenda Lohman, an associate professor of human development and family studies; and Tina Jordahl, a former ISU graduate student. Tina Jordahl, a former Iowa State HDFS and public policy graduate student who is now a market research specialist with Hospice of Central Iowa, collaborated with Lohman on the study. It analyzes data from the “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study” — a six-year longitudinal investigation of low-income families living in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio.

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Epidemic of family breakdown no longer a private matter

June 17, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Epidemic of family breakdown no longer a private matter

Senior judge, Mr. Justice Coleridge, a Family Division judge, said the consequences of break-ups for society are now so great, this can no longer be treated as a private matter. Action is needed, he said, to achieve a “fundamental change” in individual attitudes and behaviour to re-establish marriage as the “gold standard” for relationships. No one political party on its own could resolve the problems and only a national commission drawn from a wide constituency would have any chance of success, he said. Judge Coleridge sparked controversy last year when he said family relationships in Britain were in “meltdown”, likening the problem to a “cancer”. In his speech last night to the Family Holiday Association in Westminster, he blamed unrealistic expectations for the extent of disputes and breakdowns which “overwhelmed” family courts. “What is a matter of private concern on a small scale becomes a matter of public concern when it reaches epidemic proportions, especially where so many children are infected by it.”

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Private choices, public costs: How failing families cost us all

June 13, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Private choices, public costs: How failing families cost us all

A new report released by The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada includes international comparisons between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Great Britain about the public costs of family breakdown. The research is absolutely clear. There is a strong link between married parents and stability for children. Children fare best on many indicators – financially, educationally, psychologically, even in terms of physical health – when they grow up with their own married parents. Family breakdown is one pathway to poverty. If we are serious about finding a remedy for child poverty, or better yet preventing it, we can’t afford to shrug our shoulders and avoid a discussion about why marriage matters, not only for husbands, wives and children, but for us all. (PDF report)

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Canada: Family breakdown costs taxpayers nearly $7B!

June 4, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Canada: Family breakdown costs taxpayers nearly $7B!

OTTAWA — Family breakdown costs Canadian taxpayers nearly $7 billion a year, says a conservative social think tank. It is “one pathway to poverty,” said Andrea Mrozek, the manager of research at the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada. The institute released a report Wednesday outlining the financial burden single-parent families place on provincial welfare programs. Across Canada, $6,850,231,000 was spent on poverty alleviation programs such as income supplements, housing and child-care subsidies as well as medical benefits in 2006, said the report. Cost related to justice and education systems were left out. If the family breakdown rate was cut by half, Canadian taxpayers could save $1.7 billion annually — a saving equivalent to the Vancouver Olympics’ budget, said Rebecca Walberg, one of the study’s authors. (Related articles)

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For the well-being of future generations – Stop the Fighting!

May 28, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: For the well-being of future generations – Stop the Fighting!

People with parents who were violent to each other are more likely to have mental health problems when they grow up, reveals research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Researchers looked at what impact interparental violence had on people as children by observing their mental health outcomes in adulthood. A child being exposed to interparental violence is a form of maltreatment with consequences for a child’s development, but in some countries it is only seen as a risk factor for later problems with no specific outcomes. The authors studied 3,023 adults in the Paris metropolitan area in 2005 by carrying out at-home face to face interviews. After adjusting for family and social level stressors, the researchers found that people who were exposed to interparental violence had a 1.4 times higher risk of having depression, were more than three times more likely to be involved in conjugal violence, were almost five times more likely to mistreat their own child and 1.75 times more likely to have a dependence on alcohol.

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Losing contact with grandchildren when parent separate.

May 20, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Losing contact with grandchildren when parent separate.

Grandparents are getting a raw deal under existing family law, according to the latest research. The report, Beyond the Nuclear: Including the Wider Family, highlights the valuable role grandparents play in families and the legal problems often encountered by people cut off from their grandchildren during marital breakdown or bereavement. Jointly produced by three UK charities – the Grandparents Association, Family Matters Institute and Families Need Fathers – the report, launched at Westminster yesterday, found that 42% of grandparents lost all face-to-face contact with their grandchildren after parents separated. Campaign groups are now calling for changes to the law to remove the “unnecessary obstacle” that currently requires grandparents in England and Wales to go to court in order to request permission to make an application for contact rights.

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study: UK children among Europe’s least happy

April 22, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: study: UK children among Europe’s least happy

Children in the UK are among Europe’s poorest and unhappiest, suggests new research. British youngsters ranked 24th out of 29 nations after researchers looked at lifestyle factors that affect child well-being from obesity and pressures from schoolwork, through to poverty and housing. Underage sex, smoking, drinking and drug abuse all play a part in lowering the quality of life for British children.

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Counseling Service for Teens of Separated Parents a Hit – 20,000 hits!!

April 22, 2009 — Leave a comment

When a relationship breaks up, it’s not just the couple who have to cope with the emotional upheaval. Children and teens too can suffer – anger, shock, confusion, disbelief, a sense of uncertainty and even a strong feeling of guilt that it was partly their fault. Teen Between, a support service for teens who have been affected by the break-up of their parents’ relationship, has received 20,000 hits per month on its website since it was launched last November. (Full Article)

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Cost of Family Breakdown in Canada (report to be released May’09):

March 26, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Cost of Family Breakdown in Canada (report to be released May’09):

Too many Canadians know firsthand the emotional toll of family breakdown. And few would dispute there’s a financial cost, too; a split household means paying rent twice, for example. There’s also a public toll as a consequence of family breakdown, since the state often pays out benefits to help support broken families. It’s this national financial burden that we aim to measure in the Cost of Family Breakdown in Canada, a report to be released in May, 2009. // A U.S. study last year determined that $140-billion in public spending could be saved if all children lived with their own married parents. In the U. K., the extra costs to the taxpayer of poverty in single-parent households were measured at $66-billion, equal to more than 6% of total government spending. // A marriage is a private relationship, but it is also a public institution. Strong marriages are public goods because they generate social capital from which we all benefit.

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March 16, 2009 — Leave a comment

Today, marriage is something to delay — or avoid — and if it is achieved, with easy divorce, it may not last. Worst of all, children are no longer viewed as assets; they are million-dollar “liabilities.

Cheryl Wetzstein – Washington Times (click to read full article)

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