Inadequate Support Systems for Children of Separated Parents in Utah
By Rebekah Leavitt-Hatch
Published Summer 2021
Special thanks to Jamie LeSueur for editing and research contributions
Summary+
Ineffective systems that fail to support children experiencing parental separation contribute to many of the prevalent societal issues seen today, including poverty, mental illness, and educational disparities. Negative outcomes for children of parental separation without effective systemic intervention vary from financial insecurity to mental and physical health complications and lower educational attainment. Inefficiencies exist at multiple levels, including a lack of mitigating policies at the macro level, a decrease in resources on the mezzo level, and threats to social support from the micro level. Based on outputs and outcome-assumptions, best practices to prevent and mitigate negative outcomes for children of parental separation include more sensitive, research-based policies at the macro level and educational resources for parents and children at the mezzo level.
Key Takeaways+
Key Terms+
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—Negative childhood experiences that can increase the likelihood of social, emotional, and cognitive impairment, adoption of health-risk behaviors, disease, disability, and social problems, and eventually premature death. These experiences can include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, physical or emotional neglect, domestic violence, household substance abuse or mental illness, parental separation or divorce, or household incarceration.1
Educational Attainment—The highest level of education attained, ranging from high school to advanced education.2
Financial Insecurity—The inability to pull together funds for an emergency and a lack of confidence for future financial well-being.3
Socioeconomic Status—The class or social standing of an individual based on factors such as income, education, and occupation that predicts access to resources, privileges, and power.4
Child Custody—The legal relationship between a parent and child (including the parent’s right to raise, care for, and make decisions in the child’s interest) decided by a court in the occurrence of divorce or separation. Includes legal custody, where parents split healthcare, education, and other decisions on behalf of the child, and physical custody, where a child resides physically. Common variations of custody include sole legal/joint custody, where one parent has total responsibility for the child, or joint legal/physical custody, where parents share responsibility for the child.5
Child Support—Court-ordered monetary support paid from one parent to another following separation or divorce; commonly the parent with less physical custody pays child support to the custodial parent. This money is intended to cover the additional shelter, food, and clothing costs incurred by the parent with the majority physical custody for the child.6
Petitioner—The spouse who initiates the divorce process by filing a petition for divorce, which opens a court case.7
Stability Gap—The difference or gap in the likelihood of separation between unmarried cohabiting parents and married parents.8
Cohabiting—Living together and engaging in sexual intimacy without being married.
Mediators—A professional who mediates between parties at variance;9 in situations of parental separation, a mediator helps both parties reach an agreement through negotiation and compromise.
Respondent—The spouse who responds to the court summons informing them that a divorce application has been filed against them.10
Macro Level—Part of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; this is the level that looks at how large social, cultural, and political values impact a child.11
Mezzo Level—Part of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and sometimes referred to as meso level; this is the level that looks at how local resources and interactions among micro-level systems impact a child.12
Micro Level—Part of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; this is the level that looks at the immediate environment of the child, including peers, parents, and siblings.13
No-Fault Law—Allows a spouse to petition for a divorce without a requirement to prove that the other spouse did something wrong that warrants the divorce.14 Essentially, a no-fault law allows an individual to obtain a divorce without providing reason.
Latter-day Saint—A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which is a Christian religion founded by Joseph Smith in 1836.15 The LDS Church relocated to the Utah territory in the 1800s and makes up a large portion of the Utah population.
Low-Threshold Divorce—A divorce with a low-threshold impetus, including falling out of love, no longer desiring the marriage, losing connection (whether spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or sexual), among many other potential reasons.16
High-Threshold Divorce—A divorce with a high-threshold impetus, including abuse, domestic violence, addiction, infidelity, and other potential reasons.17 High-threshold reasons for divorce were commonly accepted reasons for divorce when fault was required.
Context
Parental separation is the termination of a romantic relationship between parents who were previously sharing resources and cohabitating. Although parental separation is sometimes necessary for the parents and/or their children due to abuse, toxic behavior in the home, or other factors, this separation can still produce negative outcomes for children. Some of these negative outcomes are experienced directly by children, while some are experienced indirectly through the negative outcomes parents face during parental separation. The emphasis of this brief is on the impact of parental separation on children under 18; however, adult children are likewise exposed to many of the discussed negative outcomes. Effective governmental policies, community resources, and strengthened families can alleviate negative outcomes associated with parental separation for children, improving the resilience of children whose parents need to separate. These systems include the macro level, the mezzo level, and the micro level of children and all three can have an important impact on children, both positive and negative. Currently in Utah, many of these systems fall short of fully preventing or mitigating the costs of parental separation on children.
Understanding the causes and occurrence of parental separation is necessary to understand both its impact on children and the effective systems that can prevent or alleviate that impact. There are many factors that are associated with a parental decision to split; some of these factors—including financial insecurity, mental illness, and lower education—are also consequences of parental separation. The cyclical relationship between the reasons for divorce and the consequences of divorce are highlighted by the increased risk of children with divorced parents to later divorce themselves.18, 19 Similar to the generational nature of poverty—which is both a cause and consequence of parental separation—a generational trend of parental separation impacts the rates of divorce in the United States.
Divorce rates have climbed rapidly in the latter part of the 20th century in response to changes in legislation. From the time divorce was first legalized in 1857 in the United States, divorce laws have shifted support from the respondent to the petitioner through no-fault laws; as a consequence, divorce rates climbed rapidly since the 1970s.20, 21 Divorce rates have fallen in the past few years,22 and this decline is attributed to a decline in marriage rates starting in the 1980s.23 With an increasing number of cohabiting unmarried relationships replacing traditional marriage,24 it is important to recognize the stability gap between married and unmarried parents, as unmarried parents are twice as likely to separate.25 Factors that contribute to the stability gap include differences in intent for children, educational attainment, and income levels between married and unmarried parents.26 While parental separation can be imperative for the well-being of some families and individuals, its impact on children requires more attention as divorce and parental separation become more common.
Parental separation is one of ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that can drastically affect the physical, mental, and behavioral development of a child. ACEs contribute to larger social and public health issues, which include increased risk of lower education, poverty, and mental illness.27, 28 While some separations between parents are necessary, the impact of parental separation on children plays an intricate part in larger public health crises and necessitates effective systems that can prevent or diminish the consequences of parental separation on children.
As macro and mezzo systems for divorce and parental separation vary state by state, only the systems within Utah will be explored within this brief. Utah is particularly notable in the discussion on parental separation for two reasons. First, Utah is one of the only states with rising divorce rates in the past decade,29 with more than 30,000 divorces over the past five years involving children.30 Second, Utah’s high Latter-day Saint population that prioritizes nuclear families and large family-size averages present interesting considerations when looking at the impact of divorce and separation on children in Utah. Although Utah will be the primary focus of this brief, most of the research and information on the impact of parental separation on children is applicable to other states and countries.
Contributing Factors
Macro Level: Government
Lack of Mitigating Policies from the Legislature
Legislation is one of the primary macro-level systems that influences the experience of parental separation. Thus, legislated policies must be sensitive to the unique rights and needs of children dealing with parental separation. According to most mediators, the unique rights of children facing parental separation include the right to foster and develop relationships with both parents independently, freedom from custodial and visitation decisions, spending regular time with both parents including over holidays, personal sleeping areas at each home, and both parents being informed on child medical updates, along with many other basic rights.31 While the protection of these rights is primarily up to the parents, legislated policies at the macro level have the potential to help provide accountability and oversight to protect these rights and ensure the negative effects of parental separation on children are alleviated or prevented.
Many examples demonstrate both effective and ineffective policies within Utah’s legislation that shape child experiences of parental separation. One example of effective legislated policy in Utah is the mandate for parents obtaining a divorce to attend a divorce education class that educates parents on positive co-parenting skills that can reduce negative outcomes for involved children.32 However, these education programs are currently unable to adapt to the needs of families with diverse experiences, including domestic abuse, military divorce, mental illness, and other complicating circumstances.33
Additionally, divorce education classes are not mandated for children, nor are divorce education classes mandated for unmarried parents who are separating.34 Multiple policies in Utah are designed primarily for divorce and are not sensitive to cases of cohabitation dissolution, as these experiences have no consistent legal touchpoints.
Another example that demonstrates further inefficiencies in Utah’s legislation as a protective system for children includes a recent policy shift with mandatory waiting periods. For all divorces, there is a mandatory waiting period from when a petitioner files divorce to when the divorce can be legally finalized. As 8% of divorces are not desired by either party,35 these waiting periods provide an opportunity for reconciliation in low-threshold divorce experiences.36 Research in countries who have adopted or removed a mandatory waiting period show significant changes in the number of finalized divorces while the divorce filing rates remain consistent.37, 38 Although these waiting periods do not appear to have much of an effect for high-threshold divorce experiences,39 longer waiting periods can increase the chances of reconciliation for low-threshold experiences, which can remove the risk of negative outcomes associated with parental separation for children by preventing separation altogether. Despite this research, Utah’s mandatory waiting period was shortened from 90 days to 30 days in 2018.40 Policy oversights with divorce education and mandatory waiting periods are just a few examples of decisions at the legislative level that may indirectly put more children at risk of negative outcomes following parental separation. Thus, although Utah legislation minimizes the consequences of parental separation on children to a certain degree, several inefficiencies remain within the current system.
Lack of Mitigating Procedures from the Judiciary
The implementation of legislation in judicial procedures can introduce further inefficiencies that fail to address the needs of children facing parental separation. The judiciary officiates the divorce process by enforcing the requirements for divorce and making decisions that help finalize the divorce decree between opposing parties. While many policymakers and court officials are concerned about child welfare during divorce,41 the current legal processes and systems restrict much of their interactions to parents, limiting their ability to prioritize children. This restricted process exists in Utah, where many of the requirements and tasks are targeted at parents.42 One exception to these parent-oriented tasks includes the right of a judge or commissioner to mandate a custodial evaluation.43 However, these are often incredibly expensive and rarely required.44 Another constructive but insufficient policy for mitigating the effects of parental separation on children is the required resource of mediation. Mediation can reduce conflict that arises from divorce during the divorce process,45 especially for high-conflict divorces; however, mediation does not completely solve high-conflict cases and is not required for unmarried parents.46 Additionally, if rates of conflict between parents increase after the finalized separation, there is no accountability for parents to resolve the increased conflict, which poses greater harm and risk to involved children.47 As most experiences with conflict and divorce are highly variable, it can be difficult to define and replicate statistically the risk that conflict in divorce poses to children.48 However, correlations and trends suggest that children who experience moderate to high interparental conflict are at greater risk of issues with emotional dysregulation and interpersonal incompetence into adulthood,49 among other disturbances to well-being.50 Limitations in judicial practices can restrict the ability of judicial efforts to alleviate negative outcomes of parental separation for children, including the risks of conflict.
Similar to legislated policies, most Utah court procedures for parental separation are designed for married parents seeking a divorce and are not sensitive to the dissolution of cohabitation between unmarried parents.51 Not only are unmarried parents not required to take divorce education classes, they also have less interaction with the court in custody decisions, arrangements of property, child support, and more.52 The lack of court supervision for unmarried separations may also increase the risk of poverty for the custodial parent and children without a decree that ensures alimony and fair division of property and debts.53 In total, current divorce procedures—and the lack of procedures for unmarried, separating parents—are not fully effective at addressing the needs of children in Utah who face parental separation, putting these children at increased risk of short- and long-term consequences.
Mezzo Level: Community
Restrictions in Public Education Resources
Commonly cited resources for children experiencing parental separation at the mezzo level include teachers and counselors provided by the local education system, yet many teachers and counselors in Utah are restricted in their ability to help children going through parental separation because of the overwhelming number of students they are assigned. Teachers are a vital support pillar in the development of children and are able to provide a neutral source of support for struggling children during parental separation.54 School counselors are likewise cited as a resource for emotional support for children facing parental separation, especially low-income children who may not have access to a licensed therapist. However, public education teachers are at growing risk for burnout, resulting in less emotional availability for struggling children.55 Compared to a national student-to-teacher ratio of 16 to 1,56 Utah teachers are at higher risk of burnout and have less time and resources to dedicate to each student because they have a student-to-teacher ratio of 34 to 1.57 School counselors are at even greater risk of burnout with extremely high caseloads.58 Compared to a national ratio of 455 students to 1 counselor,59 Utah counselors have a ratio of 684 students to 1 counselor.60 For both counselors and teachers, potential burnout coupled with less time and resources to allot to the needs of each struggling student limit potentially mitigating resources offered by public education systems in Utah for children of parental separation.
Beyond teachers and counselors, there are several after-school systems which serve an ancillary function to the overworked school staff that might help reduce negative consequences for children of parental separation if these programs were widely available. These optional after-school programs include Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP) and Rainbows for All Children. Both are facilitated by a mental health professional and are especially advantageous to low-income children.61, 62 While these after-school programs act as a beneficial system for children who struggle with parental separation by providing support groups, education, and therapy practices, neither CODIP nor Rainbows for All Children is available in the greater metropolitan areas of Utah.63, 64 Lack of funding and staffing in Utah public education prevent these systems from effectively alleviating negative outcomes for children of parental separation in Utah.
Church and Declining Religiosity
Another source of potential mitigation for children coping with parental separation within the mezzo level is the religious cultures and systems of Utah. While higher religiosity is at times correlated with increased risk of divorce (due to individuals marrying younger and consequently having less resources), research demonstrates that there are numerous benefits of higher religiosity—including greater emotional peace and comfort65—which can reduce negative outcomes for children and other family members during and after parental separation. Researchers attribute many of these benefits to being socially connected, which helps religious participants avoid increased stress or isolation.66 The opportunities for social networking for children in a religious community can counteract the effects of parental separation. As a result, the social aspect of religion can act as an important intervention system for Utah children facing parental separation.
However, declining religiosity limits the reach and impact of religious systems on children dealing with parental separation. Religiosity is declining across the United States for both moderately and intensely religious sects.67 A decline in religiosity can reduce access and awareness to potential theological resources and benefits for both families and children experiencing parental separation.68 Looking specifically at Utah, there is a trending 2% decrease69 of membership in the predominant faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,70 suggesting that fewer children have access to church-based support systems within the state of Utah than in prior years. While the trends for other faiths are not as clear in Utah, nationally 33% of divorced or separated adults do not regularly attend a religious service, while 19% of separated parents do not believe religion is important.71 The increasing lack of access to these benefits due to declining religiosity puts Utah children in an even more precarious situation, with reduced access to potential alleviation from theological systems during parental separation.
Micro Level: Personal Relationships
Obstacles with Family Support
Beyond macro- and mezzo-level systems, the micro-level system of a child during the experience of parental separation can play a vital role in reducing and preventing negative outcomes. While both the discussed macro and mezzo systems are Utah-specific, the effective and ineffective qualities of microsystems for children facing parental separation are more generalizable as most children both in and out of Utah have families and friends that compose their microsystem. For children facing parental separation, the family component of their micro-level system is jeopardized and often weakened through experiences of interparental conflict and parental absences. Interparental conflict can be common during experiences of parental separation and can include verbal and physical aggression, excessive hostility, and general distrust between the parents.72 It is estimated that 15 to 30% of families experience moderate to high conflict during parental separation.73
Higher amounts of interparental conflict both during and after the event of parental separation place children at 2 to 4 times greater risk of developing negative emotional outcomes compared to children who do not experience high conflict.74 Sometimes resulting in a complete lack of conflict but still producing negative effects for children is the prevalence of parental absence post-separation. As many as 27% of separated parents, commonly fathers, do not have regular contact with their child during a given month.75 Exhaustive literature reviews find that father absence is associated with detrimental psychological well-being and higher risk for life adversity.76 While parental absence for any reason can be detrimental, the consequences of parental absence due to other reasons—such as military leave—are not similar to the negative outcomes caused by parental absence during parental separation, making the observed consequences of parental absence on children of parental separation unique.77 Both absent parents and conflict between parents weakens the micro-level support system, and this common disruption to the child’s family support unit puts the child at greater risk of negative consequences.
Changes to Non-Family Relationships
Childhood friendships can often help offset disruptions to the micro-level support system within the family caused by parental separation. For children, especially those aged middle to late childhood, peer support can be as helpful as parental support to foster resilience in these children.78 However, custody arrangements for children after parental separation pose unique risks to these friendships and consequently further threaten the micro-level system of the child. Joint physical custody has become the primary custody arrangement in most states, including Utah, due to the benefits it provides to children, including better adjustment, greater self-esteem, and improved family relationships after parental separation. Although joint physical custody can provide positive benefits for children, researchers suspect that these benefits are a result of less interparental conflict due to greater parental involvement, not because of the joint custody arrangement itself.79 Rather, joint physical custody can make it difficult for children to create and maintain childhood friendships due to spending less time in one neighborhood or the other as they split their time between two different homes.80 The deterioration of key relationships, both of family and friends, introduces additional inefficiencies to the support systems for children facing divorce and parental separation.
Consequences
Most consequences associated with parental separation and divorce are not unique to Utah and are experienced by many families around the world. While these consequences are broad and far-reaching, they are especially relevant to Utah due to the rising divorce rate and unique demographic factors within this state. While these consequences could be mitigated or prevented by effective systems, these consequences may be experienced by many children in Utah due to ineffective systems at macro, mezzo, and micro levels. Further research is needed to identify ways these systems could more successfully alleviate and prevent these consequences. Additionally, current research on consequences associated with parental separation are often correlational in nature, and so explanations for why these consequences are associated with parental separation may not be possible at this time.
Increased Risk of Poverty
Without the proper preventative and mitigatory systems, parental separation puts parents and children at greater risk of financial insecurity and poverty. Divorced parents experience significant financial loss after the divorce as a single household income is now shared between two households,81 threatening resources for their children in these circumstances. Children who are born into a two-parent home experience a 41% decrease in household income in the year following divorce or parental separation.82 Marital breakups are found to precipitate the need for government assistance for families and children.83 The costs of aiding financial calamities for families and children who experience parental separation cost Utah an estimated $276 million in 2008 through welfare assistance for these families.84 Although more recent studies are needed, given 12 years of inflation and a rising divorce rate it is likely that the number of children relying on tax dollars for welfare assistance after the event of parental separation has increased. Furthermore, children of parental separation face cyclical consequences and thus are more likely to be divorced and experience financial difficulty themselves.85 Children of parental separation are also more likely to experience teen parenthood, which is associated with long-term poverty as adults.86 The risk of poverty is a common short-term and long-term consequence for children facing parental separation without effective intervention from macro- or mezzo-level systems in Utah.
Certain conditions before, during, and after the event of parental separation increase the risk of poverty for some children more than others when there are ineffective systems. The risk of poverty following parental separation is greater for children in lower socioeconomic status,87 and these children in lower socioeconomic quintiles are more likely to have unmarried, cohabitating parents who are at greater risk of parental separation due to the stability gap,88, 89 creating a cycle between poverty and parental separation. Furthermore, women and children are statistically more likely to live in poverty,90 especially as most mothers are the primary custodial parent. The risk of financial and food insecurity is especially high for divorced mothers with disabled children as they face difficulty finding flexible employment.91 There is also increased risk for divorced mothers of multiple children.92 Utah has the largest family-size average in the nation,93 potentially putting Utah women and children at greater risk of financial insecurity following parental separation due to higher rates of multiple-child households. Furthermore, it is harder to navigate out of financial insecurity for mothers with children when the mothers lack postsecondary education.94 Since 1993, Utah has ranked last in the nation with the percentage of females enrolled in postsecondary education.95 More mothers without higher education in Utah put more children in Utah at greater risk of poverty following parental separation. Better support for mothers both generally and during the process of parental separation from effective systems may decrease this risk. In all, factors including prior socioeconomic status, family size, and mother education levels increase the risk of poverty for children of parental separation, and the mitigatory and preventative systems necessary to combat the negative consequences of these factors are lacking in Utah.
Worsened Health
Mental Health
Without intervention from effective systems, parental separation as an adverse childhood experience increases the risk of mental illness for children. Divorce is often described as distressing, especially for those who did not initiate the separation, which includes an ambivalent spouse and any involved children.96 Distress can create adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) , which lead to negative mental health outcomes.97 ACEs, including parental separation, can increase the risk of both childhood on-set and adulthood on-set mental illness,98 including depression, anger management issues, trust issues, and behavioral problems.99 Depression, one of the most prolific mental illnesses with nearly 16.1 million American adults100 and 1.9 million children101 impacted, is correlated with both genetic markers for depression and ACEs102 and could be potentially avoided even in those with genetic markers if ACEs are prevented or mitigated.103 When ACEs are not prevented or mitigated, mental illness can be a common negative outcome for children who experience parental separation. For many children, parental separation is correlated with an increased risk of mental illness long-term.104 Consequences of mental illness include relationship difficulties, family conflicts, isolation, substance abuse, absence from work or school, legal or financial difficulties, poverty, homelessness, and a weakened immune system.105 While some adolescents of divorced parents do not score lower on clinical measures of depression and anxiety than adolescents of continuously married parents, adolescents of divorce are more likely to report increased experiences of subclinical pain.106 For many children, the negative effects of divorce on mental well-being are experienced up to 3 years before the event of divorce as the parent relationships begin to deteriorate; these effects continue during and after the transaction of divorce.107 To address mental illness and its consequences, children of parental separation need support from multiple systems before, during, and after the event of divorce, including counselors at the mezzo level and stable friendships and supportive parents at the micro level before.108, 109, 110 Without effective support from multiple systems, children of parental separation in Utah and most of the nation are at increased risk of both short-term and long-term mental illness and its consequences.
Lower socioeconomic status is positively correlated with risk of mental illness for some children and families following parental separation. When comparing the psychological decline of families facing a divorce, those from lower socioeconomic statuses face steeper psychological decline following the separation than those from wealthier families.111 Any risk posed by ACEs of depression or lower self-esteem for children facing parental separation is compounded and increased by lower socioeconomic status.112 Children at increased risk of poverty following parental separation may be at even higher risk of mental illness and its associated outcomes without effective systems in Utah.
Physical Health
Parental separation increases the risk of unique physical health complications for children due to the stress and financial insecurity they face when they do not experience effective systemic support in Utah. Children with divorced parents are more likely to engage in risky behaviors including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and early sexual activity—increasing their risk of developing cancers associated with these risky behaviors.113 Systems that reduce the emotional trauma of parental separation (which distress can increase the risk of engaging in unsafe behaviors) could potentially reduce the risk of these cancers for children of parental separation. Children of parental separation also have higher injury rates and increased rates of asthma compared to children from stable, two-parent homes.114 Both children and parents exposed to the acute stress caused by most divorces and parental separations are at increased risk of early mortality, with sons at higher risk than daughters.115, 116 Without effective systems, children of parental separation face potential negative, physical outcomes.
The risk of early mortality for parents indirectly produces additional negative outcomes for children. As divorced parents experience almost a 16% increase in risk of early death before age 65,117 the risk of losing a parent can pose additional negative outcomes to children, who are already coping with a difficult family transition. For children whose parents do not die during their childhood, they may still be affected by physical health difficulties of their parents—from unhealthy coping mechanisms to stress-induced disorders, although significantly more research is needed in this area.118 By decreasing stress through better resources or financial support from effective systems during the process of parental separation, the risk of early mortality may be decreased. In total, children of parental separation in Utah and most of the nation are at increased risk of physical health issues in addition to consequences of health risks posed to their separating parents.
Lower Educational Attainment
In the absence of effective systems, child educational attainment is directly affected by experiences of parental separation. Children of divorce and parental separation are consistently found to have lower educational attainment.119 These children are also more likely to experience a decline in academic success compared to children from stable, two-parent homes following the event of parental separation.120 Additionally, children of divorce experience lower test scores 3 years before the divorce, with scores decreasing during the experience of divorce.121 Negative child-education outcomes are compounded by higher levels of conflict in divorce, putting some children of parental separation at even greater risk of lower education levels across their lifetimes.122 Decline in educational attainment for children of parental separation may be due to factors such as emotional distress during the separation or fewer financial resources for higher education. In total, children of parental separation are less likely to have short-term and long-term educational success when they do not have effective support from multiple systems, increasing their risk of long-term life adversity.
Without effective systematic support for parents, parental separation also negatively affects parent educational attainment, which can indirectly diminish child educational achievement. Single parenting after a divorce or parental separation poses unique barriers to a parent’s continuing education.123 As single parents fulfill multiple roles with multiple obligations and limited time, they are less likely to return to or continue advanced education.124 Lower education levels can both contribute to and be an additional consequence of the other consequences associated with parental separation, including financial insecurity and mental illness for the family and children.125 Parental education level is also a strong predictor of child educational attainment, where lower parent education is correlated with lower child educational attainment.126 Almost one-third of parents who divorce have a high school diploma or less,127 and any effort to pursue further education is complicated by single-parenting. Nearly 43% of women with dependents are likely to drop out of advanced education due to caring for their dependents.128 Single parenting after parental separation without effective system support is associated with lower education levels of parents, indirectly increasing the risk of lower educational attainment for children.
Best Practices
While there are observable inefficiencies at the macro, mezzo, and micro level for children of parental separation in Utah, efforts for improvement to resources in the macro and mezzo levels can indirectly improve the micro level inefficiencies. Potential resources directly for the micro level include therapy and extended family support. As these are generally understood resources, they will not be discussed here and instead focus will be given to less-recognized resources through the mezzo and macro levels.
Research-Based Advocacy for Better Family Policies
Family Impact Seminars (FIS) is a policy-research initiative that addresses inefficiencies in macro-level systems that are created by a disconnect between research and policy-making. FIS are offered at the state and federal level.129 The analysis performed by FIS researchers utilizes a policy tool referred to as the Family Impact Checklist, which covers five principles including family responsibility, family stability, family relationships, family diversity, and family engagement.130 After using current research to analyze policies through the Family Impact Checklist, professionals in family studies, psychology, and/or related fields present their findings to policy-makers. These seminars provide policy-makers with research-based analyses of current and proposed legislation that helps policy-makers see if a piece of legislation hurts or helps families.131 Some of the policies covered in past years include topics like unwed fathers, welfare, teenage pregnancy prevention, family-school partnerships, housing for families, adoption procedures, and much more.132 One common focus is divorce and parental separation, with previous and pending FIS in Utah focusing on divorce policy.133 Improving Utah’s policies for families with research-based approaches through FIS and similar advocacy projects may decrease the risk of negative outcomes for children facing divorce and parental separation.
It is difficult to measure the extent to which advocacy initiatives like the FIS reduce negative outcomes for children of divorce. First, it is difficult to identify measurable outcomes for family experiences.134 Second, it is easier to evaluate outcomes for individuals than families due to system interactions within families. According to systems theory, families have multiple relationships to consider and observe; current statistical measures are ineffective at capturing the relational complexity of family dynamics.135, 136 Third, collecting family data is a low government priority, as demonstrated by the minimal focus on families in both legislative writing and administrative departments in exchange for a focus on individuals.137 One means of collecting family data is the census, but the census is conducted every ten years—leaving a wide gap of unobserved fluctuations in outputs and outcomes.138 The census also fails to capture nontraditional family experiences, including blended stepfamilies after experiences of divorce.139 Because of the difficulties in gathering and analyzing data on outcomes and impact for family experiences, it is likewise difficult to analyze outcomes and impact of advocacy efforts like FIX on children who experience parental separation. Due to these limits, the success of FIS is based primarily on outputs.
Outputs of FIS depict both potential gaps and preliminary success of FIS addressing macro-level inefficiencies for children of parental separation. The potential gaps of FIS include the optional nature of these seminars for policymakers and the inconsistencies of FIS offered for policymakers in various states.140 Utah researchers seek to offer these more regularly to the Utah Legislature compared to other states, but even then it is not provided every legislative session.141 Both the optional nature of these seminars and the inconsistencies with which these seminars are held in Utah may indicate an under-utilization of FIS research in policy-making, which weakens this potential macro-level resource. Additionally, the lack of legislation for unmarried, separating parents limits the ability of these seminars to focus on policies that affect experiences of children with unmarried, separating parents.142 There may be additional, unobserved gaps in the services provided by FIS hidden in the sparse data gathered on these families due to the three difficulties in analyzing family outcomes described above. Despite these gaps and limitations, preliminary research reports that policymakers consider the seminars relevant, useful, and objective.143 Other favorable outputs—including encouraging rates of attendance of policymakers—assume that family research is being considered by policymakers.144 While there are observable gaps in the outputs of FIS, the preliminary outputs are encouraging and recommend that such organizations may potentially have a moderate impact on macro level inefficiencies and may potentially reduce negative outcomes for children of separation.
Divorce Education Programs
A potential resource that may address mezzo level inefficiencies for children of divorce includes divorce education programs for both children and adults. Divorce education for adults (DEA) is required during the divorce process, whereas divorce education for children (DEC) is currently optional in Utah.145, 146 The goals of DEA include reducing conflict, increasing information for important decisions, helping individuals navigate the legal system of a divorce, and helping parents create and engage in a healthy co-parenting relationship with the previous spouse—all of which can improve the experience of divorce for the family and especially for children.147 The goals of DEC include helping children learn communication and coping skills, identify divorce-related emotions, clarify divorce misconceptions including explanations that children are not at fault for their parent’s divorce, and provide peer-support that helps children realize they are not alone.148 By including educational material in these classes that addresses the unique needs of children in parental separation, these programs may serve as a potential mezzo-level mitigator for negative outcomes facing children of parental separation in Utah.
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Similar to the issues and gaps encountered by advocacy groups like the FIS, measuring the actual outcomes and impact of divorce education programs is difficult. According to correlational research, DEA is suspected to provide a myriad of benefits indirectly for children. For example, reducing interparental conflict through DEA can reduce the risk of internalizing and externalizing disorders in children after parental separation.149, 150 Reducing interparental conflict through DEA can also potentially break the intergenerational cycle of divorce through increased parent support.151, 152 However, DEA does not offer these benefits directly to children, which leaves these benefits easily disrupted by extenuating circumstances. Disruption to these benefits include unusual circumstances during divorce (including military divorce, special needs, mental illness, and/or domestic violence);153 parents who do not take the education seriously or other complications prevent these benefits from being realized by children of parental separation. Additionally, this program is not required for unmarried parents who are separating, so such benefits are not consistently offered to children of unmarried parents.154
In contrast, DEC provides several unique benefits directly to children, including peer support and direct education on skills important to children who are navigating parental separation.155, 156 However, this program has low registration rates as it is not mandatory, and it primarily treats symptoms of issues during parental separation rather than preventing the causes as it helps children cope with the negative outcomes rather than prevent them. Finally, many of these potential positive outcomes are primarily correlations, and may not be direct results of these programs. While recognizing the inherent difficulties in gauging the actual outcomes and impact, current research recommends that divorce education programs likely serve a vital role from the mezzo level in mitigating negative outcomes following divorce both directly and indirectly for children in Utah.
Preferred Citation: Rebekah Leavitt-Hatch. “Inadequate Support Systems for Children of Separated Parents in Utah.” Ballard Brief. July 2021. www.ballardbrief.org.
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