To the Editor:
Re “No
Fault of Their Own,” by Ruth Bettelheim (Op-Ed, Feb. 18), which
proposes a system of no-fault custody for children in a divorce:
The argument seems to be that because parental conflict is bad for
children, the solution is to make divorce easier. If only it were that
simple.
In our nationally representative study of adult children of divorce,
Prof. Norval D. Glenn of the University of Texas at Austin and I found
that even successful young people are profoundly shaped by childhood
divorce.
They described how they had to travel between two worlds, and make
sense of their parents’ different beliefs and ways of living, something
their parents were no longer required to do. Most said their parents did
not have a lot of conflict after the divorce. Yet these grown children
of divorce report a profound and lonely inner conflict, even when their
parents did not fight.
As a culture, we can do better.
Elizabeth Marquardt
New York, Feb. 18, 2010
The writer is the vice president for family
studies at the Institute for American Values and the author of a book
about children and divorce.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 