Fr Anton Gouder, Senglea
This silence is not golden
The editorial of September 24 stirred me to write for the third time about the same subject - HBSC survey 2005.
On June 18, The Times gave us the upsetting account that 37.6 per cent of our children do not live with their two biological parents.
Quite a number of people gulped down this figure without discussion. Among the most eloquent of these were Dolores Cristina, Minister of Education (June 27), and John Dalli, minister responsible for health and social policy (The Sunday Times, July 13). As a consequence, Minister Cristina, among other things, exhorted us "to shed some of our traditional perceptions and face the reality full front".
Minister Dalli, when prom-pted, accepted that in view of such statistics "a discussion on divorce should start". I challenged the HBSC result twice (July 28 and August 2) and in my opinion I have seriously questioned the credibility of the survey.
Silence was the reaction both from the organisers abroad and from the Health Promotion Unit, the principal investigator of the HBSC survey in Malta.
Roamer twice (The Sunday Times August 3 and 17) drew attention to this fact but to no avail.
I ask Minister Cristina, responsible for the schools where the survey was conducted, and Minister Dalli, responsible for the Health Promotion Unit, to provide the Maltese citizens with the possibility of "facing the reality full front".
I also expected The Times to follow this thread and press for an explanation once it published the original much-doubted results.
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Evarist Saliba
Oct 13th 2008, 16:37
How about a comment, in this space or in the newspapers, from the persons, authorities or bodies to which this letter from Fr Anton Gouder is addressed??
James Coleiro
Oct 11th 2008, 15:15
@C McNeil
Your lengthy rationale is an exercise in trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Ignoring the fact that the research is 32 years old, let us put things into perspective here.
Malta already has a divorce - a la maltaise and this is a social reality.
Maltese nationals cannot divorce and remarry under the short sighted legislation currently in force - so they simply cohabit and have children. Thee are the same sort of children you mention would be a threat (sic) to our safety.
This means that the effects you mention should already be present in Malta. Furthermore I suggest you look outside the UK on issues such as divorce. Mainland Europe - Scandinavia and the Benelux in particular might reveal stunning differences between the UK and other European nations.
Definitely a square peg being fitted into a round hole!!!
C. Mc Neil
Oct 8th 2008, 23:29
From the report issued by Rt. Hon. Duncan Smith, he indicated that the parental factors are all related to delinquency and can be grouped to four categories as listed below:
1.Parental neglects such as in large families, poor supervision, inadequate parent-child interaction.
2.Parental conflict and discipline such as abuse or nagging, harsh, erratic or inconsistent discipline.
3.Deviate (parental) behaviors, or attitudes, parental criminality, or violence or tolerance of violence etc.,
4.Associate to family disruption for example in chronic spouse conflict or marriage brake-ups.
Skolnick stated “On average children of divorced families have somewhat more negative outlook on their world as compared with children of intact families. They are more likely to evaluate their parents unfavorably, and are more pessimistic about their own future weddings.” He further stated “out of 10 to 30% of the children coming from divorced families perceive rejection from their father, devalue the noncustodial parent, believe divorce is stigmatized or predict they will not marry.
Do we need it so as to endanger our children in courts due to lack of family surrounding them, and is it safe divorce the future of our children. Finally, what studies are being carried out in Malta?
C. Mc Neil
Oct 8th 2008, 23:24
Reports published on newspapers stated that criminality had increased enormously in the UK since divorce was introduced. Social Justice Commission of UK presently led as its Chairman the Rt. Hon. George Iain Duncan Smith PC., MP., listed 190 recommendations to address such problems of social decay, like high crime rates, low aspirations, low educational attainment, & high dependency on the state. Marriages need to be based on a solid foundation with rules to be followed and observed. Unless the Government discuss and study this in a deeper stage why our children could be at risk So without rules to observe or followed, then disaster may follow up in life.
One might say what do the Criminologist say as to what is causing all these crimes? From studies it was established that males are more likely to commit crimes from females. It was also established that when they are between 12 to 18 years they are more likely to commit a crime. However, the majority factor indicated that these had parenting indication, and among the strongest predictors was of juvenile involvement in crime, especially when the family environment is absent, such as due to separations or divorce.
C. Mc Neil
Oct 8th 2008, 23:22
A study effected by Dr. Patricia Morgan, a British Criminologist stated that after effecting a lot of studies in U.K. and also in the USA discovered a link between braking-up of families and criminality. National Development Study held in 1975 on 18,000 young boys and girls before they became (16) sixteen years, the majority had already appeared before the court for some criminal offense. The result on boys was:-
8 % those who lived with natural parents (divorced)
16 % coming from single mothers.
19 % coming from women living with another man (divorced or separated)
70 % of those in prison came from families without a natural father (broken families)
So with this result, do we need to discuss this topic and if so would they take these results into account, as otherwise we will be having the risk of criminality from children of divorced parents. So why do we risk further our children.