Roman Espejo: Divorce and Children
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BOOK REVIEW
Roman Espejo: Divorce and Children Farmington Hills, MI, Greenhaven Press, 2015, 109 pp, ISBN 9780737776294 Makenzie Mehringer1
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Received: 7 November 2020 / Accepted: 9 November 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Is divorce solely an issue between two parents enabling children to quickly bounce back into life as they knew it before, or are children deeply affected by the impacts of divorce? In Divorce and Children, the editor, Roman Espejo, compiles many varying perspectives that focus on the impact of divorce on children. These perspectives include whether divorce really is harmful to children, how divorce affects older children, how divorce affects children with special needs, and what steps parents can take to assist their children in better coping with divorce, among many others. Espejo has organized these perspectives in a manner that allows the reader to focus on the immediate process of breaking up the family as well as the long-term effects of divorce. Throughout the book, one message is made extremely clear: although most children can adjust to the negative effects of divorce, separated parents must work together to ensure they are providing effective parenting to mitigate associated risks. In the first chapter, Sarah-Marie Hopf discusses the idea that “most children possess the resilience to cope with the stress and new circumstances of divorce and mature into well-adjusted adults” (Espejo 2015, p. 11). Hopf begins with the striking statistic that today, over 45 percent of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce, and about 40 percent of children will experience their parents’ divorce. However, internal factors, including the child’s psychological and physical traits, and external factors, including the child’s family and community, influence a child’s resilience and their ability to cope divorce. Hopf emphasizes the impact divorce has on children by introducing study results using the Child Behavior Checklist. These studies found that 20–25 percent of children in divorced families exhibit severe emotional and behavioral problems, compared to ten
* Makenzie Mehringer [email protected] 1
Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, IN, USA
percent of children in non-divorced families. Despite these statistics, Hopf argues that divorce is a better option as opposed to remaining married if divorce will lessen the amount of conflict and negativity in a child’s environment. However, it is important to note that divorce leads to loss of relationships, strained financial situations, and remarriages, all of which impose significant stress on a child. Although these stressors exist, “approximately 75–80 percent of children develop into well-adjusted adults with no lasting psychological or behavioral problems” (Espejo 2015, p. 16). Hopf emphasizes throughout this chapter that parenting is the biggest factor in the adjustment of children after divorce and in the development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors; effective,
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