A recent study conducted by a University of Maine law professor and an Ohio State researcher conforms to commonsense conclusions about the prospects of people who file for bankruptcy. It should serve to draw attention to how Americans are being affected by the financial stresses of modern life.

The study found that it takes a long time for people to catch up to their peers coming out of bankruptcy court. Home ownership rates among bankruptcy filers, for instance, don't equal the population generally until those filers are 14 years past their bankruptcy. Overall, it takes more than a quarter century -- 26 years -- for people to catch up in terms of net worth following a bankruptcy.

That's 26 years of a lower standard of living, of not being able to give kids advantages they might otherwise have or achieve a level of personal financial security equal to people of the same age.

This does not mean that bankruptcy itself is a bad choice. The researchers and people who work with financially stressed families note that people who file for bankruptcy do so because they are in difficult financial shape to begin with. In fact, in most cases, bankruptcy is their only chance of catching up on their finances at all.

The study should prompt policy makers to examine not the bankruptcy code, but the underlying causes of the financial stress that leads to bankruptcy.

Chief among these are unexpected health care expenses for a family that either has no health insurance or bare-bones coverage. Fixing our health care system is an enormous challenge, but the consequences of not doing so can be found in bankruptcy court records.

Misuse of credit and expenses associated with a divorce also account for a large number of filings, and these areas may also be worth looking at.

Bankruptcy itself is not devastating, but the study makes clear that the financial stress that leads to it is.