Couples raising one or more children with special needs may experience additional stressors that cause strain to the relationship. There is much debate about the divorce statistics among these families and whether the divorce rate is in fact the colloquial 80% often quoted or some lower figure. See Divorce Rate Doesn't Go Up As Families of Children with Disabilities Grow, by Adityarup Chakravorty, Univ of Wisconsin-Madison; see also Marital Stability and Marital Satisfaction in Families of Children with Disabilities, by Dick Sobsey, Univ of Alberta, Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, 2004, Vol 32 No 1. Regardless of the actual statistics, is it important to understand how divorce terms within these families could affect the ability of an unemancipated adult child to establish and maintain eligibility for much-needed government assistance.