DadTalk

Divorce damages teenagers

Those who think that late teenagers are somehow less immune to the emotional impact of divorce than young children are very much mistaken.

Divorce is a messy business for everyone concerned. There is no best age to announce to your kids that Mum and Dad are splitting up.

But those who think that late teenagers are somehow less immune to the emotional impact of divorce than young children are very much mistaken.

Why do so many parents assume that their adolescent offspring morph overnight into emotionally mature adults who can suddenly deal with the end of family life as they knew it? Do they think the adventures that lay ahead at college will distract them from the family strife back at home? As clinical psychologist Jemma Hockley, who is based in North London and has worked with troubled teenagers, points out: 'Adolescence is a transitional period. It's also a time of separation. But in the natural order, you separate from your parents rather than the other way around.

'How an 18-year-old responds is going to depend on the individual. If you have a strong sense of the person you're becoming as you enter adulthood and have found a solid core of friends, it will be easier than if you're troubled about your own identity, in which case you're more likely to go off the rails.'

Read more in the Daily Mail.