Chapter 7 discusses the health effects of children who experience the death of a parent or the divorce of their parents. \u00a0I was surprised by their findings, which stated that losing a parent as a child does not affect longevity while divorce does decrease longevity by an average of five years. \u00a0Even though the death of a parent is certainly traumatic for children, children from divorced families were more likely to have poor long term health outcomes. \u00a0Personally, I am not a child from divorced parents, but some of my friends are. \u00a0My friend’s situations, definitely supported the hypothesis in the book, that divorce is much more damaging in a close-knit family, compared to risky families. \u00a0In risky families, sometimes divorce was a better option that staying married for the sake of the children, when the family environment was a distressed and unhappy one.<\/p>\n
Throughout this whole book, I have thought about the type of participants used in the Terman study, and how that might effect the findings. \u00a0Dr. Terman’s sample consisted of 1,528 bright and generally healthy children. \u00a0I understand why Dr. Terman didn’t include chronically ill children in his study, but by using generally bright and healthy children, you cannot generalize these results to everyone. \u00a0I am curious why he didn’t just use a randomized system of sampling, in order to get a more diverse population. \u00a0In addition, I don’t recall reading anything about the subject’s race. \u00a0Even the picture on the front cover of the book shows a picture of what seems to be 12 white children. \u00a0I am curious to see if there is any diversity within the subjects, and if not, why did Dr. Terman choose to use this population.<\/p>\n
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Chapter 7 discusses the health effects of children who experience the death of a parent or the divorce of their parents. \u00a0I was surprised by their findings, which stated that losing a parent as a child does not affect longevity … Continue reading