School children study during a class in a primary school in Marseille, September 2, 2010 on the start of the new school year in France.(Agencies) |
Children of divorced parents often fall behind their classmates in math and social skills and are more likely to suffer anxiety, stress and low self-esteem, according to a new study. Researcher Hyun Sik Kim, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the study showed that the detrimental effects on the children do not start until after the parents begin divorce proceedings. "People tend to think that couples go through intense marital conflict before the divorce," Kim, a PhD candidate in sociology, said in a statement. "My original prediction was that children of divorce would experience negative impacts even before formal divorce processes began. But my study finds that this is not the case." The findings, published in the American Sociological Review, are based on data that tracked the development of 3,585 students from kindergarten through fifth grade to examine the impact before, during and after the divorce. Kim compared the progress of children whose parents were going through a divorce with youngsters from stable families. He found that developmental problems continued after the divorce. "This study reveals that these negative impacts do not worsen in the post-divorce stage, although there is no sign that children of divorce catch up with their counterparts, either," Kim explained. He added that math studies were particularly sensitive to impact of divorce. "Reading is not that cumulative. But with math, you must understand previous things to develop. For example, if I do not understand that one plus one is two, then I cannot understand multiplication." He attributed the developmental setbacks of the children to several factors, including the stress of living with bickering and potentially depressed parents, unstable living arrangements and being forced to divide time between parents and economic hardship from a drop in family income. "Children may also experience some disturbing signs," he said. "Divorcing parents maybe cannot focus on caring about children. They may be prone to argue with children and I think that may influence children's development." (Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies)
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最新调查显示,离异家庭孩子的数学成绩和社交能力比同班同学要差,而且更容易受焦虑、压力、自卑所扰。 威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校研究人员金贤植称,离婚程序开始后,这些不利影响才会在孩子身上体现出来。 社会学博士生金贤植在声明中说:“人们通常认为离婚前两人就已经闹得不可开交了。” “我原本以为在父母正式离婚程序开始前,不利影响就已经体现到孩子们身上了。但研究发现事实并非如此。” 此次研究共调查了3585名学生,考察了他们自幼儿园到五年级的成长过程中,家长离婚前、离婚中及离婚后他们的成长状况。这项研究发表在《美国社会学评论》期刊上。 金贤植将家长正闹离婚的孩子们的成长与稳定家庭的孩子们做对比,结果发现父母离婚后孩子会继续遭遇成长问题。 金贤植解释道:“研究显示,这些负面影响在父母离婚后不会加剧,但也没有迹象表明离异家庭孩子的成长会赶上同龄人。” 他补充称,离婚对孩子的数学成绩影响非常大。 “阅读的累积效应不太显著,而学数学时,你必须先学会基础知识,才能提高。比如如果我不知道一加一等于二,那就不可能学会乘法。” 他认为孩子的成长受阻有很多原因,包括和争吵不休、心情郁闷的家长生活在一起时的压力;多变的生活安排;以及由于家庭收入下降,在和家长相处时还要分心考虑经济难题。 他说:“离异家庭的孩子们还会心烦意乱。离异家长也许无法专心照顾孩子,他们更容易和孩子吵起来,我觉得这影响了孩子的成长。” 相关阅读 (中国日报网英语点津 Julie 编辑: 冯明惠) |
Vocabulary: detrimental: harmful; injurious; prejudicial(有害的,不利的) PhD candidate: 在欧美的教育体系下,硕士和极其少数非常优秀的本科毕业生,可以申请攻读博士学位,申请得到通过者,入学注册后,就成为probationary Ph.D. candidate(博士学位研究生预科生),一年后考核,考核通过者才叫Ph.D. candidate(正式的博士研究生)。 bickering: disagree, squabble, argue, quarrel(为小事斗嘴的,争吵的) |