Children Of Divorce Article Analysis

Divorce is one of the most common happenings in the world experienced by children. Most children go through different adjustments to become comfortable with the fact that their parents are not together anymore. Children of divorced parents are prone to lifelong effects. Seventy-five to eighty percent of children have divorced parents and twenty-five percent of those children have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems for the rest of their life. Most adults think that it is best for parents to stay together for the sake of their child because having two parents in different households can become difficult for the child socially and academically.

The scholarly article “The Long-Term Effects of Divorce on Children: A Review,” by Judith S. Wallerstein, explores various studies conducted by psychologists over a twenty year span, about the long term social and psychosocial difficulties experienced by children of divorce. The majority of the research for this particular topic discusses how the problems for these children began long before the actual separation of the parents, a theory that had not been previously researched in full until these studies. After reading the article, it is evident, that often the divorce itself is the last resort of the quarrelling parents. By waiting several years before finally breaking off the failed marriage the parents are unintentionally

The key research question in this study is what are the long term effects of parental divorce on a child’s relationship between their parents and their siblings? They took into consideration variables such as age of divorce, gender, and living arrangements so they can see what influence they may have on the present study results and compare it with previous studies. They gave 3 different surveys to 102 students with married parents and 107 students with divorced parents to be able to observe the differences in relationships between the two types of families. Some of the key findings of this study are that females actually have better adult relationships with their siblings and that divorce caused the children to have better relationships with their mother, and worse relationships with their father. They noted that the age when their parents got divorced was not a variable that affected whether or not they had a good relationship with their siblings. For the relationship between their mothers, it was better unless there was a variable of pre-divorce or post-divorce conflict between them. For their fathers, it showed that daughters had worse relationships with their fathers compared to sons. Living arrangements showed effects for both of the parents depending on which parent they lived with. When it comes to remarriage, it had a positive affect on mother-child relationship when the father got remarried and no affect when the mother was remarried.

The statistics for divorce in the 1990's suggest that nearly sixty percent of marriages end in divorce. Given this startling figure, the assumption can be made that many children will experience some effects caused by the life-changing event called divorce. What is it exactly about divorce that causes negative consequences for these children? In what ways will these children be effected? Will these effects show outwardly? I will attempt to uncover some of the complexities surrounding these psychological questions in the following text. The unsettling fact is: young children of divorced parents face great psychological challenges due to the environmental conditions and changes associated with divorce (Wolchik and Karoly 45).

This paper discusses the correlation of children with divorced parents and their ability or inability to have intimate relationships in their futures. In most cases, it depends on the age of the child at the time of the divorce. Studies showed that marital problems, including but not limited to divorce, was associated with negative social, emotional, and physical affects in the children’s lives. Most articles included have different types of specific details, but all generally have the same outcome, being that children with divorced parents love differently than those that have parents happily married. Similar studies surveyed college students and discovered that children with fathers, who divorced and remarried, did not have a close relationship, which made these children more likely to avoid relationships. This literature review discusses the impact that divorce has on children who have or do not have relationships because of what happened to their parents’ relationships.

Divorce causes many problems for children and has many implications. Psychological implications include mental health problems and behavioral problems. Social roles are turned inside out and upside down. Children are often pulled in many directions. In the United States divorce is very common and often leaves children confused and without options. Many turn toward violence, crime, drugs, and isolation. Studies show how adults can reduce the tension for these children. Other

Lawton, L. E., & Bures, R. (2001). Parental Divorce and the "Switching" of Religious Identity. Journal For The Scientific Study Of Religion, 40(1), 99.

This paper discusses the correlation of children with divorced parents and their ability or inability to have intimate relationships in their futures. In most cases, it depends on the age of the child at the time of the divorce. Studies showed that marital problems, including but not limited to divorce, was associated with negative social, emotional, and physical affects in the children’s lives. Most articles included have different types of specific details, but all generally have the same outcome, being that children with divorced parents love differently than those that have parents happily married. Similar studies surveyed college students and discovered that children with fathers, who divorced and remarried, did not have a close relationship, which made these children more likely to avoid relationships. This literature review discusses the impact that divorce has on children who have or do not have relationships because of what happened to their parents’ relationships.

These include academic deterioration, antisocial and delinquent behaviors, anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. Early promiscuity, relationship difficulties, and illicit drug use are also noted. Other studies correlate resiliency in adulthood as one product of living in a conflictual family system”(Rich et al., 2007 p.164). The effects of divorce vary depending on the situation and the child. “Hess and Camara found that many children of divorce suffer severe emotional consequences such as depression, anger, anxiety, and withdrawal, any of which, if prolonged, can have a negative impact on the child’s overall emotional development. It is also reported adjustment problems in the area of cognitive, emotional, and social development among children of divorce as well. In addition, parental separation has been found to be particularly stressful for adolescents”(Bornstein and Walters, 1988 p.248).

In today 's society, divorce or remarriage rate has been growing rapidly. Divorces is a legal action between married people that is on longer together. Over the last twenty-five years, several studies has indicated that divorce process may affect family characteristics and most especially children 's cognitive performance. Divorce changes children 's lives through parental emotion and behavior. Divorce may also increase the risk of negative outcomes for younger and older children. Children from infant and toddler are less likely to be affected by divorce because is an early development stage (Leon, 2003). The purpose of this study is to better understand how parental divorces affects a child 's development, how children transition from living with both parent or divorces single parent and also. Studies, how divorce could influence a child 's behavior, emotions, a child academic and their future relationships. Between young children and older children who react or adjust more to parental divorce. My hypothesis is to see divorce effect a child 's cognitive, emotional and psychological aspect class or at home.

Children coping with parent’s dissolution have more problem adjusting to life events: “Research on interparental conflict and child adjustment” has shown that parental conflicts that are overt, intense, and child related are more strongly associated with child maladjustment than conflicts that are less evident (covert), intense, and not child related” (Davies & Cummings, 2006; Grych & Fincham, 1990). In a long term consequence, there are chances that they, when growing up, do not believe in marriage, and the risk of them getting divorced is higher than children from an intact family. Children from a divorced family witness interparental conflicts frequently, which shapes their pessimism that marriage problem is unsolvable as well as divorce is easier and acceptable (Cui, Fincham, & Pasley, 2008; Segrin, Taylor, & Altman, 2005). As a relationship is not always about love but it is also about frustration, disappointments and arguments, without patience and efforts from both partners, the connection will not stay strong and healthy. This motivates them to give up a relationship easily, rather than putting effort to work it out. They tend to commit less to their partner. This pattern in adolescent/ young adulthood can predict their rough marriage in the future.

Divorce introduces a massive change in the life of a boy or girl no matter what the age. Witnessing loss of love between parents, having parents break their marriage commitment, adjusting to going back and forth between two different households, and the daily absence of one parent while living with the other, all create a challenging new family circumstance in which to live. In the personal history of the boy or girl, a parental divorce is a watershed event. A life that follows is significantly changed from how life was before. Statistical studies indicate that children of divorce are more likely to divorce (Coontz). Children grow up being cautious about trusting others because of dramatic effect divorce caused in their life.

The ongoing debate on how harmful divorce can be on children has long existed since the mid 1900s. Before the increase in divorce rates, a social stigma was associated with the term. Many people related the term divorce to the image of a “broken” home. The term “broken” home led many people to believe that children who lived in these circumstances were surrounded by a negative environment creating psychological and behavioral problems. This paper will examine whether children of divorced parents experience more difficulties in their psychosocial well-being and academic achievement than their peers from non-divorced families. In addition, I will also examine the children's ages, younger children (elementary school) and older children (middle school-adolescence), and their gender to determine if these factors play a role in their well-being. After carefully analyzing the effects parental divorce has on children I will introduce a list of intervention methods used to assist parents and children cope with new transitions.

Every year at least a million children are effected by divorce. Because the family is a developmental integral part of growing-up, parental divorce has shown to have negative short-term as well as long-term effects that often last into adulthood. Studies have highlighted the short and long-term impact, divorce has on children’s mental health. Anxiety, depression, and mental stress has been implicated as some of these far-reaching effects. Children of divorced parents are at increased risk of displaying a variety of behavior concerns compared to children living with happily married parents. Some of these problems include social misconduct, substance abuse, and unsafe sexual practices. Research shows that academic performance is

Divorce, once unheard of among most people, is now a commonplace occurrence in families when the adults have decided that they can no longer work out their differences. Unfortunately, divorce tends to have a negative impact on the children in the family, particularly affecting children who already have psychological or emotional difficulties, such as ADHD (Patten, 1999). Problems that arise in children of divorce run the gamut from behavioral problems to later relationship/trust issues. Children of divorce more often display behavioral problems at school than do children from intact families, except when abuse is present in the home (Corcoran, 1997). Children of divorce also have more academic trouble than children from intact homes. This