With divorce rates rising over the years, over 50 percent of marriages will end in a divorce. Is this high divorce rate affecting the children from these divorced families, and if so how is it affecting the children? Or what if a married couple who is unhappy decides to stay together for the children? How does an intact but unhappy family affect the children? So to answer your questions Dr. Phil, I have put together a report from many different books, articles and studies on the effects on a child from a divorced family compared to an intact but an unhappy family. Then I will conclude with what I believe will be the best answer to your question for you to give to your audience. I will first discus a family that has decided to stay together in an un-happy but intact marriage. Children learn most of their characteristics from their parents, then model that behavior and frequently repeat these patterns in their own adulthood lives. From the book Human Development from a study on children from divorced parents and intact families says “…the search reveal that in school achievement, conduct, adjustment, self-concept, and parent – child relations, children whose parents had divorced fared poorly compared to children from intact families.” (Amato, 2001; Amato & Keith, 1991; Lansford, 2009). From many of the readings, books, and articles like the one above, children from divorced families scored lower on almost everything from self-confidence and self-control all the way to lower
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 is is already a messy situation but the second a child gets thrown in the middle of this situation, it gets even more complicated. It is the end of a marriage for the couple but it is the end of a family for the child. Not every child is affected the same. There are a list of things that change emotionally for kids of divorce. They withdraw, they have a stronger temper, they doubt love, they deal with guilt, and having different coping mechanisms with loss (What). Children of divorce miss out on things like family dinner, which plays a bigger role in childhood development than we think. Statistically, according to the CASA report, Children “who eat with their family fewer than three times a week, 20% get C 's or lower on their report cards (Klein).” Children of divorced parents never
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.
In years past, the American Dream for most young girls’ is to grow up and be married to Prince Charming and to “Live Happily Ever After!” Although this may be expected - it is rarely fulfilled. Marriage is the legal and binding union between a man and woman. Yet when couples marry, they vow to stay by their partner’s side ‘till death do us part.’ Currently that vow seems to have little or no value in today’s society. The current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. The divorce rate in the United States is somewhere between 50 percent and a startling 67 percent. (KSL News) One contributing factor the growing epidemic of divorce is the parting of different family
The statistics for divorce in the 1990's suggest that nearly sixty percent of marriages end in divorce. Given this startling figure, the assumption can be made that many children will experience some effects caused by the life-changing event called divorce. What is it exactly about divorce that causes negative consequences for these children? In what ways will these children be effected? Will these effects show outwardly? I will attempt to uncover some of the complexities surrounding these psychological questions in the following text. The unsettling fact is: young children of divorced parents face great psychological challenges due to the environmental conditions and changes associated with divorce (Wolchik and Karoly 45).
Divorce is a heavy concept that has many implications for those involved. The situation becomes even more consequential when children are considered. As divorce has become more commonplace in society, millions of children are affected by the separation of the nuclear family. How far-reaching are these effects? And is there a time when divorce is beneficial to the lives of the children? This paper will examine some of the major research and several different perspectives regarding the outcomes of divorce for the children involved, and whether it can actually be in the best interest of the kids.
Another mental health problem a child can develop is depression. A child with depression may be sad more often than not, feel guilty or helpless, and may lose interest in pleasurable things or things they previously enjoyed. Other mental health issues that may arise from the divorce of the child’s parents are antisocial behavior and hyperactivity (Strohscein, 2012).
Most researchers look at how children react and are effected when they experience parental divorce. Divorce is looked at as something “bad” for everyone who is effected by the situation. Divorce in the United States has the highest rate in the world. Over one million people a year get divorced and sixty percent of those divorces effect children (article 2). At the time of the divorce it seems like a horrible experience but, people never think about what would happen if the marriage stayed the way it was. Couples get divorced for many different reasons it could be because there was abuse, fighting, cheating and even if the couple was just no longer in love. “Children appear to be better off in cases in which the divorce substantially reduces
Divorce rates in the United States have become extremely high and students everywhere are victims of divorce. But what effect does divorce have on children? Divorce affects the children in three ways. These three ways include emotionally, physically and academically.
L., Feng, H., Kampen, R., & Schimmele, C. M. (2010) have a very strong statement on this issue. The results that concluded the article are very scientific but I believe there is much more that they need to look into when it comes to family stability. How much are the parents involved with the childs life, do both parents contribute equally in the childrens live. Whether the family is financially stable, it also depends on whether the children have a disability, whether it is ADD, ADHD, FAS, the author never considered these aspects of the children either. I do agree with some of the conclusions because most children are affected by divorce whether it is emotionally or
Divorce or the parent separation is a major life change for the children and can
In recent decades the family institution has undergone a dramatic transformation focusing on increased divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families (Amato, 2000; Bumpass & Lu, 2000; Graefe & Lichter, 1999). Due to the increase of divorce rates children move more frequently and deal with additional family transitions throughout their childhood (Brown, 2006). As these changes slowly increase, about 40% of kids who are born to wedded, two-biological- parent families have a higher chance of parental divorce prior to reaching adulthood(Amato,2000). In addition, these children will likely experience a multitude of family disruptions and transitions as parents decide to remarry and progress with new partners. The family atmospheres during these times are incredibly detrimental to the growth and development of these children (Sun& Li, 2009). Research studies show that parental divorce can compromise educational success for their children. Children in two-parent families have noticeably higher test scores than children who are in single parent families and also had lower chances of graduating from high school (Sun & Li, 2001). One of the rationalizations for the academic difficulty in divorced
Divorce and its effects on children are common issues that are on the rise in the world today. Divorce affects more than just the married couple. Children often bear the brunt of divorce, which makes divorce a complicated decision for most parents. Understanding the effects divorce has on a child is important to know exactly why a child acts a certain way. A divorce can affect a child psychologically, intellectually, and even behaviorally. Children can suffer physiologically from things like depression, intellectually by having trouble in school and behaviorally by having trouble in social settings. Legally, a divorce is a single event, but from a psychological standpoint, it is a complicated,
One of the biggest effects of divorce is the effect it has on our children. Most couples get married and have children shortly after, and all decision made by the couples directly affect their children. Studies show that divorce has one of the most negative effects on children. Children living in single parent homes are more likely to be pregnant as teenagers, drop out of high school, abuse drugs and have behavioral issues. Furthermore due to the high dropout rates of single parent children they often have hard times finding jobs due to their lack of education. Often times we will see that children from broken homes will also have issues maintaining long term relationships as well. Studies show that children who parents are divorced or separated marriages will end in divorce as well. One last scary effect of divorce is that 92 percent of inmates in California State correctional facilities are products of single parent homes; in other words at some point when they were children their parents either divorced or became separated.
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.