Is The Effect Of Long-Term Negative Effects Of Divorce On Children

Divorce is one of many controversial subjects in family and human development research. What inspired me to critically analyze the article “Does Divorce Create Long-Term Negative Effects for Children?” is the challenge it would be for me to put my bias aside considering I am from a divorced home. After reading the article and analyzing it over and over, I can’t help but think that the writer answering “YES” to this controversial question overlooked many variables and over generalized his findings and research. With Zinsmeister overgeneralizing his research, not considering enough alternate explanations for long-term negative effects divorce, and his lack of relevant information needed to assess reliability and validity are why I find this article to be insightful but not accurate and hope to show why.

Janet Shansky of Iona college wrote this intellectual article about some major theories within divorced families. These theories have the potential to explain the connection between parental divorce and negative outcomes for the children. These include, but are not limited to, the "marital disruption" theory, the "reduced resources" theory, and the "parental conflict" theory. Shansky takes a deep look at all of the research that went into these theories and how they explain the adverse effects of divorce on children. Another aspect of her article is how these significant theories can be put to use in intervening future students and children from having such a hard time with this major change in their life.

With the large and growing number of divorce rates, research is now discussing the effects it has on the children of divorced parents. Now divorce does not just impact the individuals going through it, but their children as well. Not only do children have to live with one or the other parent, have shared custody, or various other living arrangements that may change, but their entire life that they knew changes. Research is

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

In modern day society, many people are finding it is becoming more and more acceptable to get a divorce. Even the word family itself has changed so drastically, it’s no wonder divorce is so high. What many people don’t realize is that divorce can possibly have a serious effect on children and their behaviors. Many studies have been conducted and have shown a variety of long term, as well as short term effects that children have developed after they’ve experienced going through divorce, one effect divorce could have on children is the risk of the child developing behavioral issues.

Aaron Churchill and Fagan Patrick points out that children or adults from divorce change their perception about sexual practices and their response towards sexuality. For these young adults, the chances of engaging in pre-marital sex, coitus and divorce dramatically increases however, the need to get married and have kids decreases because they would rather have kids out of wedlock. Patrick Fagan and Aaron Churchill in their article states “clearly, one generation passes on its marital instability to the next. Sons of divorced parents with less educated mothers have an increased tendency to forgo marriage” (Fagan et al. 2012). In addition they suggest that it is likely to find girls who come from a divorced home getting involved in constant and unhealthy sexual activities and also have more sex partners. (Fagan, et al. 2012). Portnoy Sandford claims that the reason for these young females to engage in early sexual intercourse is because divorced families rarely teach sex education or self-control skills to the kids or because the children withdraw from their parents at a very early stage in their life (Portnoy,

On one hand, the struggles of divorce cause stress in children's’ lives, and leave them to form mature, adult relationships without a strong marriage to look to for advice. Children must not be treated as though they are the cause of a separation because that kind of psychological damage is extremely intolerable On the other hand, the end of relationships is part of the natural progression in life, and children can potentially benefit from learning that truth early on. Children of divorce may also become more resilient than their peers, making them stronger students and employees later on in life. Undoubtedly, people who happily get married do not dream of divorce, however it is an unfortunate reality of many families. Furthermore, in these families all have different experiences, so it is extremely difficult to draw one conclusion for all these children. This issue focuses on whether or not divorce is harmful to children, and whether it causes irreversible psychological damage. Parents do their best to prevent separations from happening, however life moves quickly and sometimes people grow apart. Regardless, divorce is an extremely prevalent social issue in the United States, and it is important to impress upon children that no matter how divorce may affect them, it is under no circumstances ever their

Divorce is a touchy subject for some people to discuss, although it is an issue that is occurring very often in people’s lives today. A divorce can affect everyone involved, including the children, unfortunately. Divorce and its effects set a bad example to children and their future lives as young adults, along with having life-long effects from the divorce because of things that they experienced during it. The different causes of a divorce have multiple effects on the children who are experiencing it, including problems that lead to psychological and emotional effects, behavioral issues, problems with school, and problems with future relationships.

Parents in separation and divorce are very concerned about the effects of divorce on children. They wonder whether their decision will affect the happiness and health of their child. Reliable information about the effects on children is still being gathered and analyzed by sociologists and psychologists.

“In 1991 Amato and Keith examined the results of 92 studies involving 13,000 children ranging ranging from preschool to young adulthood to determine what the overall results indicated” (Hughes,2009). This study is going to help determine whether children from divorced

Divorce negatively affects teens academic success. “It diminishes learning capacities and high school and college attainment” (Fagan, 1999). In general most children live with their mother after their parents go through a divorce. “The absence of the father lowers cognitive test scores for young children in general, but especially for girls’ math scores.”, “By age thirteen there is an average difference of half year in reading abilities between children of divorced parents and those from intact families.” (Fagan, 1999). Divorce is at an all time high in the United States. Divorced parents is affecting children of all ages and it is even beginning to affect those in adulthood. “Molepo (2012) explains that ‘the findings suggest that teachers perceive younger children from divorced parents were more likely to have emotional and behavioural challenges than those from intact families’” Divorce affects all ages of their offspring, in this study, high school teenagers were the only ones that were

40 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce (American Psychological Association, Paragraph 1), with 2nd marriages having a 60 percent chance, and 3rd marriages having a 73 percent chance (McKinley Irvin, Paragraph 3). That number is expected to rise through the years, and at the same time marriage is expected to slightly fall. Since 2001, marriage has either fallen a slim or stayed consistent, while divorce has been on a steady climb. With 876,000 divorces a year (McKinley Irvin, Paragraph 5), there's no doubt that it can have some long or short term effects on people. With children having a higher probability of being in poverty, having behavioral problems, and performing less well in school (JRF Paragraph 5), what effects does divorce

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

While the rate of divorce has rapidly increased in recent decades, currently between 40 to 50 percent of married couples file for divorce during some point in their marriage. Although in some cases these families already have children and divorce is an impactful event that can cause life lasting effects on children. The effects that divorce has on children can cause serious psychological issues that may form and develop over time from toddlers into the adolescent stage of their lives. The divorce itself does not affect children in a negative way. The effects result more often from the feeling of uncertainty of what is going to happen after the divorce, from the level of conflict between the parents and from how the parenting after the

When looking back at how far our society has come in the last fifty years, we see a rapid growth in the divorce rate. If you think about your grandparents or great grandparents, chances are they were probably still married. When thinking about our parents or ourselves chances are some if not half are divorced. What some people do not realize is that with the growing rate of divorce, there is growing evidence that divorce has an adverse effect on children’s development (Sarason & Sarason, 2005). By people getting married, having children, and then getting divorced; it is causing long term psychological damage to their children and having adverse effects.