Effects Of Divorce On Well-Being

Divorce is not only difficult for parents, but even more difficult for the children. It can hit hard and fast but can also be built up from long term damage and stress on the marriage. Children can view their parent’s divorce in multiple ways. They can visually see it, or they can hear it. Children may also not view the divorce at all. Divorce can be sudden, confusing, and hidden. It can be a quick and relieving process, or it could be slow and painful. The relationship could be fought for night after night with little progress being made. The marriage could be fought verbally or even physically. Hurtful words are thrown to bring an end to the relationship and caring words are thrown to keep the marriage alive.

Most people don’t ever think that they will get a divorce but the reality is that almost half of marriages will end in divorce. Divorce is not a decision that is made or taken lightly; its effects on families are damaging and not to mention long lasting. The Oxford Dictionary (2017), describes divorce as “a legal decree dissolving a marriage by a court or other competent body”. When a couple decides to separate numerous aspects of their lives are affected. Divorce affects family dynamics, physically and emotionally health, education, finances, job stability, income potential, drug use and crime. Divorce does not simply affect the lives of families; it affects America as a whole religiously, economically, and it immensely impacts the lives of the children involved.

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.

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

Throughout time, people from all over the world have chosen to live together, or “get married”. Marriage is a beautiful thing, but there are some couples who are unable to maintain their relationship, because they choose divorce as a solution to cope with the problems between husband and wife. Although divorce can be solution to cope with problem between the husband and wife, it still has dangerous effects especially on their children. Children with divorced parents are vulnerable to risk. Divorce has a dangerous impact on children. Divorce of parentss causes many problems to children. It causes children to have a loss of Knowledge, skills, and resources from parents, behavioral problems, emotional problem, and health problem

Some might say a family holds a genetic bond. Others insist a family includes unrelated caregivers. However one may choose to see a family, there lacks a correct definition. Family lies within the heart. Full of compassion, love, and loyalty, a family remains firm and dignified. Lehigh University creates the perfect family representation and its overwhelming dynamic inspires me. Originating from a catholic high school that favors a family enriched atmosphere, I can not imagine going to a college that does not (thank goodness for Lehigh).

Fagan, Patrick F. and Robert Rector. "The Effects of Divorce on America." World & I, vol. 15, no. 10, Oct. 2000, p. 56. EBSCOhost, fortwayne.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.fortwayne.libproxy.ivytech.edu.allstate.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=3628746&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 24 March 2017. Fagan and Rector discuss the many issues divorce can have on a child. They argue that when it comes to divorce, there are primarily negative outcomes for the child involved. Children who are victims of a divorced family have an increased chance to abuse drugs and become involved in crime. These children also have a higher rate of living in poverty, being undereducated, and becoming psychologically

Divorce is comparable to an epidemic since it has been filtering through many societies at an increasingly alarming rate. According to the most current statistic, there are more than 2.1 million marriages in the United States (“Children of Divorced Parents”). Out of those, almost half end in divorce. Divorce nowadays is extremely common. In fact, in America there is one divorce every thirty-six seconds (National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends”). Each year over a million American children suffer from the divorce of their parents (Amato 24-26). Even though it might be shown to benefit some individuals in their own personal case, for the majority it causes a decrease in an individual’s life and puts many people “on a downward trajectory from which they might never fully recover” (Amato). Over long term, the United States divorce rate has been on a rise since 1980, which means more children being affected (Macionis). These children that are affected are faced by emotions of anger, confusion and even fear. These emotions affect their academic performance, social interactions, behavior, self-esteem and other negative effects. This literature review is important in calling attention on the current research studying impacts of divorce on children. The topic of divorce is a wide-ranging topic. However, this particular literature review focuses only on the effects that divorce has on children. The data presented in this paper is collected from

The topic of divorce, for many decades, has been a topic that fell into the domain of taboo. In more recent years, society within the united states has brought the topic into the limelight by desensitizing the term. Thus, the divorce rates in the US have went up. However, a divorce has both positive and negative implications. Also, there have been backlashes against divorce, but there has also been a positive feedback system employed to aid in the process that surround divorce. The partitioning between the political parties can be further exemplified in topic of divorce.

Title: Time Does Not Heal All Wounds: A Longitudinal Study of Reaction and Adaptation to Divorce

For my final project in this course, I will be exploring the long term effects of divorce on adolescents. In terms of motivation and experience in researching this subject, I have hands on experience with the results divorce brings onto families. As a child of two divorces, one at age five and the other last year, I want to understand not only what truly causes divorce, but the physiological consequences the split brings upon the children involved. The decisions of my parents have weighed heavily on my life thus far and in researching and communicating the research behind my findings, I hope my audience will receive additional information on how divorce affects everyone involved, especially adolescents, to hold a better grasp on the growing epidemic and what it

Amato, Paul R. "The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children." Journal of Marriage and the Family 62.4 (2000): 1269-87.

One way to view the effects of divorce on children is from a psychological point of view.

Boy meets girl. Girl and boy fall in love and get married. Girl and boy have children and life could not possibly get any better. Many years later: Boy and girl start to notice something different in their relationship, something wrong. They decide that their relationship is over, whether they’re both happy with that decision or not and they divorce. Boy and girl’s children see them divorce. Children process the divorce in different ways, and it stays with them for the rest of their lives. People who experience a divorce are affected by it, whether they want to be or not. More often than not, those effects are negative. Before any parents make a rash decision, and

Children need intact families to flourish. It is hard to imagine that if the family is torn apart, a child can simply adjust to a new situation, home, step-parent, siblings, and entire change of life as they know it without suffering significant effects upon their mental health and development lacks. Despite voices that serve to minimize the effects of divorce on children, this paper will show that the negative effects upon their mental health and development are such that the best solution is to avoid divorce all together. According to Stinson and Jones, “well-being on the road to adulthood for both children and teens hinges on family relationships.”