How do the Children of Multiple Divorces Fare?

Social scientists interested in how multiple divorces affect the children have studied individual families over the time span of several years.

One particular case involves two children, a 13 year old son, and an eighteen year old daughter. First their mother divorced their father, then another man lived with them for a time. Now after three years, the children have a new stepfather.

The daughter says, "it's kind of a pain," meeting all the new brothers and sisters and cousins, and its embarrassing to always be saying, "I'm the new girlfriend's daughter."

Case studies like these suggest that children of multiple divorces report more anxiety, more depression, and have more difficulty in school and in their own marriages than do children of single divorces.

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The New York Times. Sunday March 19, 1995