Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Enriching Education: Divorce and Grades

 “We know that divorce harms a child's emotional wellbeing, and that impacts their school performance,” said Dads’ Resource Center Executive Director Jeff Steiner. “We also know that children do better and achieve more when fathers play a larger role in their lives because the child's wellbeing will be better. Society must make changes that will keep fathers more active in their children's lives. That's something that will benefit everyone."

 

In most cases, divorce has a detrimental impact on a child's life. This is primarily due to the amount of stress that the family is under and that most children go from having their father in their lives daily down to seeing him only every couple of weeks. Children need both parents to be active and loving in their life to feel whole, safe, and have less stress. 

 

A child’s education is negatively impacted when parents’ divorce. Here are some research studies that shed light on the problems associated with it:

 

  • In a study published in 2019 in the journal Sociological Science, researchers looked at why parental divorce lowers a child's educational attainment. They conclude that it's explained by a decline in family income, family stability, and a child's psychosocial skills. They report that a child's cognitive ability doesn't deteriorate when parents divorce, but their emotional wellbeing does, and this leads to a decline in educational attainment.
  • In the February 2022 issue of the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, researchers looked at the association between school difficulties and family type in an early adolescent population. They concluded that adolescents with divorced parents have nearly a 5-time greater risk for school difficulties than intact families. The school difficulties include skipping school, school absence due to family problems, grade repetition, low school performance, and school dropout ideation. 
  • A study published in the March 2020 issue of the journal PLoS One, examined the relationship between divorce and adolescent achievement in relation to the educational level of the parents. They report that the negative association between parental divorce and GPA was stronger among adolescents with educated or highly educated parents compared to adolescents with less-educated parents. They conclude that educated, divorced mothers are less likely to transfer their educational advantages to their children than non-divorced, equally educated mothers. Their theory is that the educated, divorced mothers are taking on more burden and work pressure.

 

“More than any other project or cause that society needs to work on, we all must work with passion and urgency to eliminate the systemic barriers to single-father involvement in the lives of our children,” says Dads’ Resource Center Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers. “All of us must take the time to educate everyone about the overwhelming evidence - backed by thousands of years of anecdotal evidence and numerous studies over recent decades - that clearly show children develop much better when both of their parents are actively involved in their lives.”


I had a chance to do an interview, and received the following comments.



The expectation for all separated parents should be that they commit to having an amicable co-parenting relationship to ensure the best interests of their children. 

 

As it relates to their children's education, first and foremost the parents should communicate with one another about how their children are doing in school - academically, socially, emotionally, etc.. It might be best to make a point of talking at the end of each marking period. With this, the school should be informed that any information about their children should be forwarded to both parents, and that both parents should have access to any available information about their children. As their education progresses, mom and dad should talk about what direction or plans their children are considering for their life after graduating from high school and how they will support them as they enter into post secondary education or the workforce.  

 

The Dads' Resource Center is working with a retiring superintendent on a training that would be available to K-12 educators to help them better navigate issues arising with their students whose parents are engaged in contentious custody cases.

 

Dads' Resource Center was established by Dr. Myers, a father of eight and the founder and CEO of AccuWeather. The mission is to help combat the issues associated with children growing up without their fathers in the home. At its heart, the center is a child advocacy organization that aims to ensure that each child has the appropriate involvement and contributions from both parents. 

 

Dads’ Resource Center works to benefit children of separated or divorced parents by advocating the importance of fathers having adequate opportunities to fulfill their role of fatherhood. The group helps get information regarding the issues out to the public and works with fathers to help make improvements. To get more information, visit the site at: https://dadsrc.org.

 

About Dads’ Resource Center

The Dads' Resource Center is committed to providing education, resources, and advocacy for dads who are separated or divorced and are determined to uphold their sacred responsibility as fathers. The Dads' Resource Center was founded by Dr. Joel N. Myers, the founder, and CEO of AccuWeather. His own experience as a single father led him to start the group. To get more information, visit its website at: https://dadsrc.org.

 

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Sources:

 

  1. Sociological Science. Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children’s Educational Attainment? April 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559749/
  2. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. Associations between school difficulties and family type and role of socioeconomic, behavior, and health-related difficulties. February 202 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35112630/
  3. PLoS One. Divorce and adolescent academic achievement. March 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32130231/

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