Families with special needs children may have a higher rate of divorce and more marital conflict than other families, according to an article published in The New York Law Journal on August 6.
The article by Susan L. Pollet, coordinator of the New York State Parent Education and Awareness Program, compared studies and articles by various sources from 2003 to 2009.
In the article, “Impact of Separation or Divorce on Special Needs Children,” Pollet states that the American Bar Association has had a growing number of cases involving special needs children, and that families with special needs kids have a higher rate of divorce, according to a 2009 book by Margaret S. Price called The Special Needs Child and Divorce: A Practical Guide to Evaluating and Handling Cases.
According to sources cited in the story, having special needs children places unique pressures on families. Conflict and marital separation also create additional difficulties for special needs children.
However, the sources varied in their assessment of whether the presence of special needs children has any real impact on marital conflict or separation. Pollet pointed to a study released in 2004 by Don Risdal and George H.S. Singer that put a number on the association between the two, showing a six percent average increase in divorce among families with disabled children.
Pollet quotes a 2005 article in Family Court Review, where Donald T. Sposnek, Heidi Perryman, Josanna Berkow and Sherrill Ellsworth wrote that children with special needs "require extraordinary parenting and place extraordinary demands upon the adults who care for them."
But she adds that another source, Paul Withers and Lara Bennett of the British Journal of Learning Disabilities, found that the evidence was unclear about whether family stress is any different in families with special needs children versus others.
Pollet also looked at legal and financial issues that families with special needs children have, noting that medical and educational issues must be taken into account in decisions about custody and living situations.
For example, state law requires parents to provide child support until the age of 21, but some young adults with special needs require care beyond that age, Pollet notes.
Judith L. Poller and Alicia Fabe wrote in the American Journal of Family Law that, "Standard child support charts do not address the higher costs inherent in raising a child with special needs, and generally divorce support orders do not cover the care of children for their entire lifetime."
Pollet concluded that, “Families undergoing separation or divorce with a special needs child face unique challenges, which must be faced squarely to insure the best outcome for the child and for the parents.”
Sources for the story also included the Journal of Family Nursing, The Washington Post, Science Daily and the Journal of Marriage and Family.
Pollet received research assistance from Nicole Bandura, a student at Pace University Law School.
This article was published in the October 2010 issue of Able News.
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