Divorce And Its Effect On Children

Every year more than half of all marriages between a male and female end in divorce (Weaver & Schofield, 2015), and data from the 1990 census states that over one million children experienced parental divorce (Amato, Sep. 2001). Compared to the 1960s 90 percent of children in the US grew up with two biological parents. Today that figure is only 40 percent (Bryner, 2001). Clearly, the prevalence of divorce should be a concern for the adults who live and work with the children who are affected by this phenomenon.

Divorce, a very controversial issue in today’s society, has glaring effects on society as well as individuals. Approximately half of all marriages will end in divorce, resulting in close to one million children per year struggling to deal with the aftermath (Fischer 2007). Parental divorce has been proven to have long-term negative effects on adult mental health (Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin Kiernan 1995). Divorce was at its highest rate in the early 1980s. The first group of children to be affected by these very high divorce rates entered adulthood in the 1990s allowing sociological research to begin on the adverse affects associated with divorce over the span of different ages. Until this time, a lot of research focused on short-term effects surrounding

Divorce is a heavy concept that has many implications for those involved. The situation becomes even more consequential when children are considered. As divorce has become more commonplace in society, millions of children are affected by the separation of the nuclear family. How far-reaching are these effects? And is there a time when divorce is beneficial to the lives of the children? This paper will examine some of the major research and several different perspectives regarding the outcomes of divorce for the children involved, and whether it can actually be in the best interest of the kids.

The rapid epidemic of divorce in the United States within the last 20 years has affected more than one half of the families in the United States. In the past, we have viewed divorce as a short term crisis and not as a longitudinal view of the effects divorce might bring. Divorce does affect children. However, it is not the divorce that is the problem; it is the ongoing conflict between the parents and the child’s coping mechanisms in their own stages of development. Counseling, family therapy, and also having a divorce mediation are all successful ways of coping with the family.

This paper will present an overview of the impact of divorce on children and some of the ways that are intended to help children of divorce to successfully function in society. The impact of divorce on children takes many different forms. From mental and physical health concerns to financial instability, children suffer the most in the divorce situation. When a couple, who have children, divorces it affects the whole family. Children of divorced parents experience school and social related problems. Their routines are disrupted and they feel disconnected from one or the other parent. Custodial arrangements are another factor of impact for the children. This causes emotional stress and

In the world today, divorce has become more and more relevant, as many people of all ages are more open to the idea of ending their marriages and starting over. In fact, according to the article “Children Divorce Statistics”, it quotes from Furstenberg and others that “50% of all North-American children will witness the divorce of their parents. Almost half of them will also see the breakup of a parent's second marriage” (Bloem 1). With the divorce rate going up, the effects of the separation must be acknowledged. The stress and change of a divorce of two parents on children, especially older, causes many development issues, such as depression, anger management problems and anti-social disorder, which may

The current divorce rate suggests that one out of every two marriages will end in divorce. This paper is a critical literature review that explores the hypothesis that divorce has detrimental effects on children. Six different risks have been suggested to cause the differences in an increased need for help between divorced family children and two-parent family children: parental loss, economic loss, more life stress, poor parental adjustment, lack of parental competence, and exposure to conflict between parents. This paper examines the research on how divorce negatively effects children, and explores the unanswered question of how it effects them through young adulthood.

Did you know the U.S Census Bureau found that forty-one percent of marriages end in divorce? Did you also know the divorce rate among couples with children is forty percent lower than couples without children. Sadly according to http://1.usa.gov/1dMPvI2, forty-three percent of children growing up in America today are being raised without their fathers. Seventy-five percent of children with divorced parents live with their mother. Twenty-eight percent of children living with a divorced parent live in a household with an income below the poverty line. Finally, half of all American children will witness the breakup of a parent’s marriage. Of these children, close to half will also see the break up of a parent 's second marriage.

Each and every day a child somewhere in the world is experiencing major changes within their family. One of those major changes is divorce or separation of parents. Divorce is “the action or an instance of legally dissolving a marriage”(Webster, 2011 p1). Today’s reality shows that couples only have one in two odds of remaining together. “ The U.S. Census bureau – involved in research about counseling children of divorce- estimating that approximately 50% of all American children born in 1982 lived in a single-parent homes sometime during their first 18 years. Mostly are due to divorce”(Children of Divorce, 2008 p.1). The rapid increase in divorce rates is a factor that has contributed to the large decline of the typical family. “Over 1

It is no surprise that the rate of divorce in the world has been climbing steadily. Ever since the 1970’s the rate of divorce has risen exponentially. While the traumas of divorce are ever present for the couple splitting up, has anyone thought about how this effects their children? It often seems that children are placed on the back burner, when it comes to marital issues, and treated as collateral damage in their parents’ whirlwind issues. In this paper, I will be focusing on how divorce negatively affects the children, and the strain that is placed upon them, and the current rates at which people are ending their marriages.

Many studies have shown that the effects of divorce on children are hard to handle. In some cases, they are extreme and require counselling and therapy to help. In other cases, the child doesn’t even realize anything is wrong or is too young to understand it. Divorce causes many different types of issues in the parents; including depression. Which then in turn, affects the children. Divorce has many life changing effects on the whole entire family. Studies have proven that there are many negative effects on children as a result of divorce. With that being said, some of those effects range from short-term to long-term.

Parents’ divorce has both short- and long-term effects on children. Some short-term effects include (1) children might feel guilty or responsible for the divorce, (2) they may become increasingly aggressive, violent and/or uncooperative, lashing out at both parents, (3) may become emotionally needy out of fear of being abandoned, (4) may lose the ability to concentrate which could then affect academic performance, and (5) may develop intense feelings of grief and loss. Although many of the effects of divorce on children are short term after which they fade once the child has time to adjust to the new family situation and all the changes that have occurred, there are many cases where the effects may be long term. The children of divorced parents may be more likely to: (1) be less educated, (2) experience poverty and/or socio-economic disadvantage, (3) exhibit anti-social behaviour as well as other behavioural problems, (4) suffer from drug and/or alcohol addictions, and (5) experience separation and/or divorce themselves.

In today’s society, it is very common for a married couple to divorce. Usually, the divorce involves children. A home that has experienced divorce is not only broken on the outside, but also the inside. A child of divorced parents can be emotionally, relationally, mentally and physically changed by this altering event. Some kids are resilient and can deal with the divorce in a reasonable and healthy way but others do not deal with it as well. However, sometimes it’s not the divorce that causes the problems, it’s the conflict and family disharmony that occurs because of the split. “The divorce of parents is a major stressful life event for children and adolescents, often having negative effects on health and well- being” (as cited in Hansell, 1989, p. 105). A vast majority of children experience their parents go through a divorce and are left with only their mother or father. “About 25% of children in the US live with only one parent; the fallout from contentious divorces often leaves them susceptible to any number of damaging scenarios” (Bernet, 2015, p. 1). Although there is some people who would argue, it is the general consensus that the divorce rates in the United States is around 50 percent leaving so many children to deal with this altering event (Portnoy, 2008, p. 126).

Divorce is a heavy concept that has many implications for those involved. The situation becomes even more consequential when children are involved. As divorce becomes more of a commonplace in society, millions of children are affected by the separation of the nuclear family. The negative effect divorce has on a child’s psychological and social aspects can appear right away or not be known for years. But it has been shown to have lasting impacts such as depression, low self-esteem, anger, learning problems, and high divorce rate in their own marriage.

Unfortunately divorce is a very common and ordinary occurrence in today’s world. Many families and children witness the horrible feeling of this awful, some would say, nightmare. It is no longer seen as an awful deed like it used to be by the representing members of society. But this begs the question, “Do the children affected by divorce view it in the same manner, or do they see it as the vile thing it is?” While it can have some positive outcomes, such as a cease in violence in a child’s life, these are certainly overshadowed by its numerous ill effects. No child wants to see their parents constantly fighting and not loving each other as they should. Divorce has a number of critical influences on a child’s life, reaching beyond just their life at home, and affecting both their performance in school and their own ability to create relationships.