Updated | Children's Commissioner misinterpreted my study on divorce' - psychologist

Updated at 4:26pm with Children's Commissioner's comments.

Joan B. Kelly, the co-author of the study cited by Commissioner for Children Helen D’Amato, rejected the anti-divorce interpretation given to the study, the Malta Humanist Association said.

Dr Joan B. Kelly

Contacted by the MHA, Kelly stated that “They have misunderstood the research. The comparisons have been made between groups of children whose parents remain married, and those children whose parents have divorced.

“There is no reason to expect that the psycho-social outcomes for children whose parents divorce, get an annulment, or legally separate would be any different. Divorce and legal separation are the same, from the perspective of the children.”

Her work was cited by D’Amato during a meeting with the anti-divorce movement Zwieg bla Divorzju, in which D’Amato quoted the study to attribute harmful effects on children by divorce.

“I don’t like my articles (or interpretations of the research of hundreds of researchers) to be misinterpreted or misrepresented,” the MHA quoted Kelly as saying.

The Kelly & Emery article presents research on protective factors for children following separation and divorce, which showed 75% of divorced children are functioning within average or better range on objective, standardized tests.

Parents’ behaviours make a huge difference, as do appropriate parenting plans that allow for continuity in the child’s relationship with both parents.

In her reaction, D'Amato said that during the ongoing debate, she has always said that children "do not separated, get an annulment or divorce but carry the psycho-social outcomes of such situations". She said she repeated this statement during her meeting with Zwieg bla Divorzju.
 
"During the same press conference when mentioning comparisons about risks, the Commissioner mentioned both groups of children, that is children whose parents remain married, and those whose parents have divorced. When she was specifically asked whether she attributes such consequences only to divorce, her reply was no, but that she attributes such consequences also to separations and annulments," the Commissioner's office said.

“The Malta Humanist Association is concerned that voters are being misled by the implication that divorce causes negative consequences different than those caused by annulment or separation,” spokesperson David Friggieri said.

“In cases where divorce follows separation, as is being proposed by the forthcoming referendum, the problems caused by a failed marriage would have happened at least four years before, and divorce becomes a formality that formally recognises the ending of the former marriage, allowing the couple to move on with their lives, and possibly to marry the person with whom they have built a new, healthy relationship.

“It does not create marriages that ‘expire’, on the contrary it favours marriages based on that which really binds families together – love and respect.”

D'Amato on Monday cited studies by clinical psychologist Joan Kelly and Prof Robert Emery of the University of Virginia, which she claimed "showed children in their first family are at reduced risk from emotional trauma or even developing mental health complications than those living with second (reconstituted) families through cohabitation or remarriage."

But a read through the same studies reveals that D’Amato was highly selective in her quotations:omitting entirely the main bulk of the researchers’ conclusions, and misrepresenting some of the salient findings.

In reality the study quoted by D’Amato suggests that the effects of divorce are actually minor, and in any case entirely analogous with the effects of legal separation. The researchers also underline that the vast majority of children from broken marriages are not permanently scarred by the experience.

In ‘Children’s Adjustment Following Divorce: Risk and Resilience Perspectives’ (2003), Kelly and Emery observe that “although we do wish to promote more happy marriages, we conclude that although some children are harmed by parental divorce, the majority of findings show that most children do well".

Significantly, they added: “To suggest otherwise is to provide an inaccurate interpretation of the research findings.”