Divorce And Separation Paper

In North America, 50% of children will experience their parents divorce. Married couples get divorced for many reasons. For example, infidelity, being unhappy, and financial problems are some of the few. Children who experience divorce develop many behavioral problems that affect them in the future. No matter what age, adolescents experience feelings of anger, loss, grief, and feeling unloved. However, depending on the age of the child, divorce can cause many diverse problems that affect the child in the future.

In the last two decades divorce has increased substantially leaving couples single and families broken. Divorce is the reality for many families as there is an increase in divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families. Divorce cannot be overlooked as it negatively affects and impacts youngsters for the rest of their lives. Although it is the decision between two parents’s children are hurt the most in the process. The concept of divorce is extremely difficult for children to understand as there are many unanswered questions and uncertainties. “Will my mom or dad remarry and who will I live with?” are concerns children express while going through divorce. Many

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.

The trauma and distress of children going through divorce is often produced from overwhelming senses of vulnerability as the family seemingly collapses, grief at the loss of what felt like an intact family as well as at the loss of the non-custodial parent, and even a strong sense of powerlessness to being unable to prevent the divorce from happening.

Sandford Portnoy reveals in his article “The Psychology of Divorce: A Lawyer’s Primer, Part 2: The Effects of Divorce on Children” that children from divorced parents in some way suppose that they could have been better off had their parents being together. They question their identity or existence and in Sandford’s words, “They tended to view their personal worlds through the lens of this powerful event, believing that they would have been different people had their parents stayed together” (Sandford, 2008). Their personality is also questioned especially children who come from abusive and conflict filled family. Sandford states “these children appeared to experience numerous problems including anger, stress, oppositional behavior, and, in adolescence, alcohol consumption and delinquency” (Sandford,

The rising numbers of divorce in the United States has reached an all time high of about 1,250,00 divorces per year; furthermore, two out of every five children will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach the age of 18 (“Long”). Many factors will determine how much your child would be affected by the separation. A child 's awareness of divorce will be mainly determined by age and gender, as well as the child’s history of stress and the ability to cope with it. When the stressful events taking place begin to outweigh the child’s protective factors, even the most resilient child can develop problems. A growing list of information shows that certain factors will make some children more at risk for maladjustment than others (“Are”). The many factors include: the child’s age, ability to cope, nature of the divorce, and the amount of loving support and understanding that they

actions. Identity confusion regarding guilt in children who have experienced divorce forces them to carry unneeded emotions around with them for what can be the rest of their lives.

Divorce on children can be one of the most traumatic things that a child may go through. Although, the reasons for divorce can range from financial, lack of communication, infidelity to a lack of love for each other. Many of these children have a cacophony of things that is being initiated in their minds that can cause depression, concentration issues at school, and behavior issues at home, as well as at school. The effect or psyche on these children as they grow into young adults can vary from not being able to trust others, or loss of a connection with the parent that leaves the home. As young adults deciding to enter long-term relationships they

Children of bitter divorces can suffer tremendous outcomes. Yet not every single divorce is traumatic for a child. It is old news that children are better off with happy separated parents than unhappy married parents and divorce from a dangerous family member could mean safety and better times ahead. Though some situations can be traumatic for children of parents who are more than just an “unhappy” couple. Young children from toddler to elementary age can suffer from a myriad of psychological issues with messy divorces and violent

Child and adolescent development is already a sensitive time with the emotional and physical changes, so divorce of the parental figures may only make it a more fragile process for the child (Newman, et al., 1993). Young children about five to nine years old will perceive divorce as a physical separation of the spouses, whereas older children about ten to fourteen years old will perceive divorce as a psychological and emotional distance between the spouses (Newman, et al,

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

Divorce is always a traumatic experience in a person's life, especially a child's. When parents divorce, children are not always considered during the settlement. This omission can lead to problems with the child's perception of daily life. The impact divorce has on a family is more prominent to the children of the family than the parents.

contextual factors in divorce that have led to the maladaptive adjustments of children (American Psychological Association, 2004).

Divorce is an event which presents a drastic change into anyone’s life, no matter what their age is. Witnessing love between parents deteriorate, having parents break a significant commitment, adapting to going back and forth between two different households, and living with only one parent, all create a challenging environment in which to grow up and live in. However, especially for young children, parental divorce is a turning point in their life. After a divorce, the life that follows is significantly different from how life was previously.

In today’s generation, there is a decline in the growth of children because of the lack of parenting that a child receives when growing up with a divorced family. Children often think that the divorce is their fault, but it is never their fault. Children even struggle with divorce as they grow older, and they tend to show a decrease in school performance.