Radiating Messages: An International Perspective

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2003.00406.x
• Date: 01 October 2003
• Author: Janet Walker
• Published date: 01 October 2003

406 Family Relations

Special Collection

Radiating Messages: An International Perspective

Janet Walker*

Studies that radiated negative messages about the detrimental impacts of divorce on children prompted urgent calls in the United

Kingdom for a reinstatement of traditional family values. A careful review of the evidence conf‌irms that although the effects of divorce

are real, care should be taken to avoid exaggeration. This has moved the debate forward from one centered on f‌inding ways to save

marriages at all costs to one centered on providing better support, advice, and information to parents and children to help them deal

with the complexities associated with parental separation and establish a different kind of family life in which the quality of relationships

is a key factor.

Although the ‘‘divorce revolution’’ of the 20th century

was perceived as a phenomenon associated primarily

with North American society, other Western nations

have faced similar far-reaching changes in family living arrange-

ments. The steady rise in divorce rates in Australia, New Zea-

land, and across Europe (Pryor & Rodgers, 2001; Walker & Hor-

nick, 1996) has been accompanied by public concern about the

impact of divorce on family life and on children. The urgency

that led the British government to put forward proposals for

divorce reform in England and Wales in the mid-1990s was fu-

eled by widespread alarm about the consequences of divorce for

children. Almost four in every 10 children in the United King-

dom experience the break-up of their parents’ relationship by the

time they reach the age of 16 (Off‌ice for National Statistics,

2002). Without doubt, the separation and divorce of parents is

one of the hardest transitions for children to cope with (Cum-

mings & Davies, 1994). There is abundant research evidence that

parental separation is distressing for children, particularly in the

short term (see Kelly & Emery, 2003, this issue), but personal

stories of the miseries of divorce have tended to foster a climate

of intense doom and gloom and to stimulate suggestions that

couples ‘‘should seriously consider staying together for the sake

of [their] children’’ (Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000, p.

307). Such messages have been embraced without question by

journalists and politicians in the United Kingdom who are eager

to prove that divorce is bad for children and that ‘‘the social

fabric of our society is unravelling’’ (Moran, 1995, at col. 763).

The debates on divorce reform in both Houses of Parliament in

England during the passage of the Family Law Bill 1995 were

charged with emotive comments colored by selective interpre-

tation of research f‌indings to support specif‌ic political agendas.

Confused messages can result in confused policies, developed

on the basis of spurious research evidence.

Critical opportunities during the 1990s to reform the adver-

sarial divorce process were hampered by those who argued that

divorce law should focus on saving marriages to protect children

from the adverse consequences of marital breakdown. The re-

sulting legislation, the Family Law Act (England and Wales)

1996 was cumbersome and subsequently considered by the in-

coming Labour Government to be unworkable (Lord Chancellor

of England and Wales, 2001). At the beginning of the 21st cen-

tury, the divorce process in England and Wales remains adver-

sarial, and the majority of divorces rely on fault-based facts to

prove that a marriage has irretrievably broken down. Although

*Newcastle Centre for Family Studies, 18 Windsor Terrace, University ofNewcastle

upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom (j.a.walker@ncl.ac.uk).

Key Words: children, divorce, family, United Kingdom.

(Family Relations, 2003, 52, 406–417)

defended divorce has largely become a thing of the past, ‘‘quick-

ie’’ divorces based on allegations of unreasonable behavior or

adultery are the norm. The promise of a no-fault system that

would end dead marriages with the minimum of distress has not

materialized despite continued criticisms that the current law

does little to reduce parental conf‌lict and hostility (Westcott,

2002). Nevertheless, there is growing agreement about the mat-

ters that could and should be addressed to support families and

protect the best interests of children when parents separate. It

now seems unlikely that the law in England and Wales will be

reformed in the foreseeable future, although in Scotland changes

are expected that will reduce the periods of separation needed to

establish marital breakdown. It is hoped that fewer couples will

use fault-based facts to obtain a speedy divorce. The new divorce

process in Scotland will be similar to that in Canada, leaving

England and Wales out of step with most jurisdictions in the

Western world. Given the dissatisfaction with theadversarial ap-

proach among the judiciary, lawyers, mediators, and mental

health professionals (Wilson, 2003), it is diff‌icult to see how

maintaining the status quo can be justif‌ied.

This paper ref‌lects on the prominent research messages over

the last 25 years and the inf‌luence they have had on legislative

reform, policy, and practice in England and Wales regarding

marriage and divorce. It also addresses the ways in which new

research f‌indings provide stronger evidence for new initiatives

that aim to support parents but fall short of being prescriptive

about the making and breaking of marital relationships.

Private Hurts and Public Interests

Attempts to regulate human relationships are fraught with

diff‌iculty. Bainham (1998) argued convincingly that family law

is inherently unenforceable: ‘‘Parents cannot ultimately be forced

to see children, or children to see parents and it is not possible,

through a restrictive divorce law, to force a harmonious domestic

relationship on the unhappy’’ (p. 1).

There has been some uncertainty about what the role of law

should be with regard to transformations in family relationships.

However, it is now generally agreed that the law cannot create

happy, stable marriages or sustain unhappy ones. It can create a

conceptual framework within which desirable models of family

life are promoted. The decisions as to which models are accept-

able and which are not must be grounded in the best knowledge

we have about the factors that minimize risk and those that pro-

mote resilience and protection (see Haine et al., 2003; Kelly &

Emery, 2003). Some legal commentators have argued that family

law reform in England and Wales historically has been inf‌lu-

enced too much by empirical studies instead of by rationally

established a priori legal principles (Deech, 1990). It is argued

further that this has had the unfortunate effect of moving the