Painful Legacy of Divorce

You may feel as if you grew up on a desert island, far from the mysterious world of lasting romantic love.


You may believe that even if you do fall in love, you are destined to jinx the relationship, or be abandoned, or be terribly hurt.

You may fear conflict and change and have a tough time separating from your parents, even though you left home years ago.

A new book, based on a lengthy study, argues that emotional complications like these are common among adult children of divorced parents -- and that they may not be fully evident until decades after the breakup.

``The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce,'' by Marin County psychologist Judith Wallerstein, San Francisco State University psychology professor Julia M. Lewis and New York Times science correspondent Sandra Blakeslee, is based on a 25-year examination of the lives of 93 Marin County adults.

Wallerstein, founder of the Center for the Family in Transition in Corte Madera, began examining this group in 1971, when they were children and adolescents. Now they are between the ages of 28 and 43.

Initially, researchers expected that the study findings would be different -- that the most stressful time for the children would come right after the divorce.

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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/09/18/MN22626.DTL#ixzz0ePaHRzje


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/09/18/MN22626.DTL#ixzz0ePa9Ik5w

For more information, contact the Family Law Offices of Renee M. Marcelle at (415) 456-4444, or online at http://www.familylawmarin.com/




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