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Familial Support For Children During The Stressful Period Of Divorce Essay

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Familial support for children.
In many cases, parents or other family members are not able to be as supportive to their children during the stressful period surrounding divorce. One study by Amato (1993) noted that divorce is one of the life’s most stressful occurrences, and adults experience significant difficulty in their life adjustment after the divorce, which may impact their interactions with their children. Parents are less emotionally available during this time (Riggio & Valenzuela, 2011), and the help and support from family members that are also experiencing distress from these life-changing events are less likely to occur (Kitson et al., 1982). Also, parents’ stress surrounding the divorce is known to impair the quality of their childrearing skills during this time (Amato, 1993). While those surrounding the children are coping with the new life changing events themselves, the children may be left to learn how to handle the divorce with limited support from parents, extended family, and friends. The impact on children. Divorce affects many members of the family including children. Statistics show that annually more than one million children will go through the process of divorce within their family per year (Bing, Nelson & Wesolowski, 2009). Another study reported that 40% of all children will experience parental divorce during their lifetimes (Arkes, 2013). A significant amount of research has focused on the impact of divorce on children. This study illustrates
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