All This Time I Thought More Family Arguments and Fighting Would Have Made Me Better Adjusted

So, have you received the recent issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry? No? Better check your mailbox.

According to a study called Long-Term Impact of Family Arguments and Physical Violence on Adult Functioning at Age 30 Years: Findings From the Simmons Longitudinal Study, we now know that "an increase in family arguments by age 15 years and the occurrence of family physical violence by age 18 years are related to deficits in key domains of adult functioning at age 30 years."

Thank you, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, I never would have guessed.

Sarcasm aside (and more to come), you have to appreciate what it took to be a researcher on this study:

The 346 participants were part of a single-age cohort from a predominately white working-class community whose psychosocial development has been traced since age 5 years.

In other words, you had to ask the children of Teamsters and other laborers what happened after Mom inquired of Dad for the fifth time this week his reasons for stopping by the local watering hole on his way home from a double-shift the plant/cannery/mine/assembly line/waterfront docks. And recording the effects of Dad's nonverbal answer on the kids. For 25 years.

You're just better off skipping the early-age stuff and look for the adults who aren't even football fans, yet they hide in the closet, cowering, when Dad's team loses on Sunday. Read more...