??how many american children have cut contact with their parents?有多少美国年青人与父母阻隔了联络？

a young field of research suggests it is surprisingly common

一个新的研讨领域标明，这种表象非常广泛

unhappily married?for many years, peter (not his real name) waited until his children were grown up before he divorced their mother. he hoped this would make the experience less upsetting for them. yet in the six years since, he has not seen either of his two sons.?

意外的婚姻持续了许多年，彼得(化名)等到孩子们长大后才和他们的母亲离婚。他期望这能让孩子们不那么哀痛。可是在那之后的六年里，他再也没有见过他的两个儿子。

he speaks to the younger one, who is in his 20s, once or twice a year; the eldest, in his 30s, has cut off all contact. his middle child, a daughter, has at times tried to act as go-between, an experience she has found distressing.?

他和二儿子（20多岁）每年只能说上一两次话；和大儿子（30多岁）则断了联络。年纪介于两个儿子之间的女儿有时试着充傍边间人，这让她倍感苦楚。

“for me it has been completely?devastating,” he says. “i get on with my life, but i get teary when i think about them.” losing contact with children is like bereavement, he says, but with the painful tug of hope that they might one day be reconciled.

他说：“这对我来说太苦楚了，我持续过着我的日子，但当我想到他们的时分，我就会泪流不止。”他标明，与孩子们失掉联络就如同失掉亲人一般，但与苦楚火伴的还有期望，他期望能有团圆的一天。

though people tend not to talk about it much, familial?estrangement?seems to be widespread in america. the first large-scale nationwide survey, recently conducted by cornell university, fo

und that 27% of adult americans are estranged from a close family member.?

尽管我们一般不愿意谈论这个疑问，但家庭隔阂在美国如同很广泛。康奈尔大学迩来进行的初度大规划全国性查询发现，27%的美国成年人与最亲近的家庭成员联络疏远。

karl pillemer, a professor of sociology who led the research and wrote a book about its findings called “fault lines”, says that because people often feel shame, the real figure is likely to be higher. the relationship most commonly severed is that between parent and adult child, and in most cases it is the child who wields the knife.

主导这项研讨的社会学教授卡尔·皮勒默就其发现撰写了一本名为《断层线》的书。他说，因为我们对此感到羞耻，因而实践数字可以更高。最多见的是父母与成年子孙阻隔联络，在大大都情况下，都是孩子要和父母阻隔联络的。

because family estrangement has been a subject of research only for the past decade there are no data to show whether it is becoming more common. but many sociologists and psychologists think it is. in one way this seems surprising. divorce heightens the risk of other family fractures.?

因为有关家庭隔阂的研讨是从十年前才初步的，因而没稀有据标明这种表象是不是正在变得越来越广泛。但许多社会学家和心思学家认为这种表象越来越广泛了。在某种程度上，这一趋势如同令人惊奇。离婚会添加其他家庭决裂的风险。

joshua coleman, a psychologist and the author of “rules of estrangement”, found in a recent survey of 1,600 estranged parents that more than 70% had divorced their child’s other parent (children of divorce are more likely to dump their fathers, he notes).?

《疏远的规则》一书的作者、心思学家约书亚·科尔曼在迩来一项对1600对疏远父母的查询中发现，跨越70%的父母离了婚（他指出，离婚夫妻的孩子更有可以与父亲阻隔联络）。

in recent years america’s divorce rate has fallen. yet dr coleman reckons other trends are making parent-child estrangements likelier than ever. other therapists, who do not specialise in family rifts, concur.

这些年，美国的离婚率有所降低。可是，科尔曼认为，其他一些趋势正使父母和孩子之间的隔阂比以往任何时分都要大。其他并非专门研讨家庭裂缝的医治师也对此标明附和。

a rise in individualism that emphasises personal happiness is the biggest factor. people are increasingly likely to reject relatives who obstruct feelings of well-being in some way, by holding clashing beliefs or failing to embrace those of others. personal fulfilment has increasingly come to displace filial duty, says dr coleman.?

偏重自个夸姣的自个主义的鼓起是致使这种趋势的最大体素。我们越来越倾向于回绝那些以某种方法阻止夸姣感的亲人，比方在崇奉上存在冲突或不承受别人的崇奉。科尔曼说，自个作用感越来越多地替代了孝道。

whereas families have always fought and relatives fallen out, he says, the idea of cutting oneself off from a relative as a path to one’s own happiness seems to be new. in some ways it is a positive development: people find it easier to separate from parents who have been abusive. but it can also carry heavy costs.

重难点词汇：

devastate?[?dev?ste?t] vt. 消除；损坏estrangement?[??stre?nd?m?nt] n. 疏远；失和

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考研英语：这才是必考词汇（何凯文） ￥45.60

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