The Effect Of Love Gone Sour On A Child 's Development

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.

As we stated earlier, age is not a safeguard to the effects of divorce (Oppawsky 2). While adults may be more able to understand their feelings and seek the support they need, they are still subjected to the emotional and mental consequences of their parents’ divorce. In Wallerstein and Lewis’ study on the “Legacy of Divorce” many of the adult children recalled their own feelings of shock and unhappiness at the time of the separation and it’s aftermath. Almost all remembered feelings of loneliness, bewilderment, and anger at their parents. Many cried as they recounted their history and their childhood fears that would be forgotten by their preoccupied parents. Some even claimed that their childhood ended when their parents separated. When these children reached young adulthood and when love, sexual intimacy, commitment, and marriage took center stage, many of them were haunted by the ghosts of their parents’ divorce and were frightened that the same fate awaited them. They feared their own commitment (Wallerstein and Lewis 359-360). In fact, children of divorced homes are more likely to experience marital instability and a slight elevation in their own divorce rates. Many of the parental divorced children also found that their parent’s actions were actually causing problems amongst their own children. They often felt lost

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

The rising divorce rates in America are no secret, with 50% of children in America going through the divorce of their parents. There is a huge weight on these children’s shoulders, the weight of dragging their bags from one home to the other and seeing their parents barely

According to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1979), attachment patterns are formed in the context of early childhood experiences with caregivers and maintained by interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Attachment is defined as an affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through space and time and serves to join them emotionally. Attachment trauma may be especially problematic because of its influence on the course of psychological, social, emotional and physiological development over one 's lifetime. Also, if a child is traumatized by reason of caregiver neglect or maltreatment, significant damage in attachment development may occur. Past research discovered that over two-thirds of maltreated children develop insecure attachment styles (Friedrich, 2002). Moreover, children who have experienced abuse or neglect in early childhood

However, this is not the reality of our times. McConville (2013) states 41-50% of first marriages end in divorce in the United States. The affect the divorce has on the child is dictated by how the parents maneuver through the transition. Potter (2010) states that elementary and high school students both display poorer psychosocial well-being versus children from non-divorced families (pg. 933). Adolescents face many struggles and challenges throughout this developmental stage. Being a child of divorced parents can heighten stress and anxiety leading to depressive symptoms. To avoid and or decrease this instance, adolescents affected by divorce can benefit heavily through group counseling with others facing identical

According to the Encyclopedia of Psychology, one half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. With these one million children are affected each year. Eighty five percent of these children live in single parent households, with the mother being the head of the house. The father is usually distant or does not speak to the children at all. These children are highly affected and experience a great deal of emotional and academic problems. Especially when you compare them to children with non-divorced parents. During adolescence, these children have twice as high as a rate of dropping out of high school, having teenage pregnancy, and experiencing deliquiate behavior. I am not a child of divorce, but a child dear to me is. I have seen firsthand the emotional tear that it can play into a child’s life, and the way it affects a family. Divorce may cause children to grow up anxious and scared. Children may even ask themselves “why me?”, “what can I do?”, and “where should I go from here?”.

Attachment theory originally started with the work of John Bowlby. Bowlby’s interest was in linking the relationship between a mother and her young child with the development of their personality later in life. He constructed the basic principles of attachment theory using concepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, developmental psychology, and psychoanalysis. Bowlby’s work completely changed the way people thought about the importance of a mother’s bond to their child and the implications that disruption to the bond would bring (Bretherton, 1992).

Divorce is accumulating at a faster rate in the United States than any other time in history, with half of all marriages ending in divorce. It is now time to wonder whether this will have any impact on the children of the divorced. But what exactly are the consequences of being raised by one parent? Children of divorced parents are at a disadvantage compared to children with two married parents because they are more vulnerable to an addiction and/or substance abuse problem, less likely to continue school, posses destructive behavior issues, and acquire more susceptibility to psychological problems.

It examined the ways in which cohesion may impact children’s adjustment to parental divorce, and its effect on their future romantic relationships. This research ultimately dispels the myth that all divorces cause the generational transmission effect. The generational transmission effect is concluded to universally exist, but there are definitely many other factors that come into play when it comes to divorce. It was concluded that just because a couple divorces, it does not mean their children are certain to get a divorce, but they do face a higher chance. The idea that divorce is passed from generation to generation, ultimately depends on levels of conflict and cohesion. All five articles I had chosen concern the children of divorced parents and their future romantic relationships. They are all fairly recent sociological articles, with studies done by sociologists. Some studies from the articles I have chosen argue that divorce makes a strong impact on children’s future relationships, whereas others say there is little to no impact. Through my studying and research I have come to find that in each article there is one common factor in their findings: the outcome of the children’s relationship depended on how the divorce went, as well as how the children were able to cope with the divorce. Levels of conflict and cohesion were predominant

This paper discusses the correlation of children with divorced parents and their ability or inability to have intimate relationships in their futures. In most cases, it depends on the age of the child at the time of the divorce. Studies showed that marital problems, including but not limited to divorce, was associated with negative social, emotional, and physical affects in the children’s lives. Most articles included have different types of specific details, but all generally have the same outcome, being that children with divorced parents love differently than those that have parents happily married. Similar studies surveyed college students and discovered that children with fathers, who divorced and remarried, did not have a close relationship, which made these children more likely to avoid relationships. This literature review discusses the impact that divorce has on children who have or do not have relationships because of what happened to their parents’ relationships.

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

Children coping with parent’s dissolution have more problem adjusting to life events: “Research on interparental conflict and child adjustment” has shown that parental conflicts that are overt, intense, and child related are more strongly associated with child maladjustment than conflicts that are less evident (covert), intense, and not child related” (Davies & Cummings, 2006; Grych & Fincham, 1990). In a long term consequence, there are chances that they, when growing up, do not believe in marriage, and the risk of them getting divorced is higher than children from an intact family. Children from a divorced family witness interparental conflicts frequently, which shapes their pessimism that marriage problem is unsolvable as well as divorce is easier and acceptable (Cui, Fincham, & Pasley, 2008; Segrin, Taylor, & Altman, 2005). As a relationship is not always about love but it is also about frustration, disappointments and arguments, without patience and efforts from both partners, the connection will not stay strong and healthy. This motivates them to give up a relationship easily, rather than putting effort to work it out. They tend to commit less to their partner. This pattern in adolescent/ young adulthood can predict their rough marriage in the future.

Divorce is a plague that is destroying numerous families across the United States of America. Sadly, when husbands and wives divorce, the children are often caught directly in the middle. Throughout the years divorce has been becoming more and more common. In the 1920's it was a rare find to know a person whom had been divorced, today it is a rarity not to know of one who has been, or will be divorced. Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike.

For many people throughout the United States, it is a melancholy but common sight to see broken families, separated children, and squabbling spouses. In a society in which over 20% of marriages end in divorce, it is not surprising that the majority of today’s children grow up in a one parent marriage. The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that in 1993, about 1,187,000 divorces were granted in the U.S., affecting 1,075,000 children. Sadly, some children are even deprived of seeing their mother or father throughout their entire childhood. Many others are allowed to visit one of their parents only once or twice a month. This lack of family unity results in emotional and psychological problems for both the parents and the