(See Figure 1). .
While this study may have shown a higher percent of teens in intact families using alcohol and drugs by the age of seventeen the difference in heavy use during high school is astounding.
Education Levels.
How can divorce possibly affect a child's ability to learn? When parents" divorce, a child's learning ability is not necessarily altered but rather the supporting elements of learning have changed. According to Parental divorce and children's education (http://www.international-survey.org/wwa_pub/wwa_div2.htm), the loss from a parent dying is the same as the loss occasioned by a parent divorcing suggests that the two may have a common cause: the loss of paternal encouragement, emotional support, and guidance (Hogan and Kitagawa 1985). Research on the USA tends to find that, net of economic factors, parents' divorce has a detrimental impact on their children's behavior (e.g. Furstenberg et al. 1987), and that these behavioral differences probably entirely account for the worse school marks of children of divorce (Mulkey, Crain, and Harrington 1992). (Parental Divorce, 2002). According to The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce (Wallerstein, Lewis & Blakeslee, 2000) ninety-four percent of children from divorced families completed high school compared to one-hundred percent of children from intact families. Seventy-seven percent of children from divorced families attempted college compared to one-hundred percent of the children in the study with intact families. Twenty-four percent of adult divorced children dropped out of college compared to eleven percent of adult children from intact families. (See Figure 2). Although these percentages are not as startling as the alcohol and drug abuse statistics, it is an area that can be improved.
Single and Marriage Rates.
How does the divorce of ones parents affect the prospect of marriage when these children become adults? As stated in the introduction, many children of divorced families are more likely to struggle with peer relationships.
