In her 2005 study of the effects of divorce on mental health, the University of Alberta’s Lisa Strohschein found that children of divorced parents exhibited high levels of anxiety throughout every stage of the divorce. Further she says, "the loss of a parent from the household is accompanied by an additional increase in child anxiety/depression that operates independently of pre-existing differences between children of divorce and children in intact households." As might be expected, she found similar levels of child anxiety when the divorce occurred in a dysfunctional family.

Considering the epidemics of family dysfunction and divorce in Western nations, perhaps it’s no wonder teachers and researchers are identifying increased anxiety, behavioral problems and poor academic performance among children in the classroom. Raising testing standards and increasing homework doesn’t seem to be fixing the problem.

Could it be that the most important work to be done in the home has to do with learning how to relate appropriately within the family? It’s difficult to imagine an improvement in the function of society as a whole without an improvement in human relationships on the most fundamental level first.

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