The Effects Of Divorce On Family Members

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.

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

and their world. He or she may be uprooted to a new school, city or

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.

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?”.

The occurrence on divorce in our society today has left children emotionally and mentally hurt by this. More and more studies have been done on to see if divorce has an effect on children. I personally have had no effect of divorce, but I have had several friends who have been affected. I had little knowledge about how impactful divorce can have an affect on someone until I started doing research on this topic. Divorce is very hard on people who have to deal with this. The articles I have found to do research on all have something new and exciting to bring to the table. Of the ones I have found, I believe they will help me to understand more of the struggles young children have to cope with during such a difficult time. I also found an interesting article about the fathers’ perspectives on divorce. It talked about how they still want to be apart of their children’s lives and how hard it is to keep a strong relationship with their children. I felt like it would be good to include this article into my paper because it will help me to learn from the fathers’ side how they handle the situation. Throughout this paper, I disused the different effects divorce has on children, the various programs and coping strategies for the children, and fathers’ perspectives and mother-child relationships. All of these topics are very important to divorce and the articles from the researchers did a great job of talking about these topics.

For couples with children divorce can wreak havoc on family relations. The behavior of children can change rapidly, in Cherlin (1993) it has been stated that, “children whose parents separated or divorced displayed more behavior problems and performed more poorly in school than children whose parents remained married” (para. 3). It is important to note that each child is affected differently and relationships with parents will not always be bitter (Cherlin, 1993). The personal source is a friend of many years whose parents divorced when she was very young. Her brother was also very young at the time of the divorce; each of them as male and female reacted differently to the divorce, just as it has been seen in many studies (Alex Pringle, Personal Communication, May 10,

Children whose parents who get divorced may grow up having difficulties committing or trusting partners. Eventually, however, most children overcome these deficiencies and go on to be successful in future relationships.

In most cases, children whose parents result in divorce often times have difficulty adjusting back to reality. It usually takes them a little bit longer to veer back onto the right track they were on before the hit of the hardships they had to deal with. Children’s parents who get divorced usually do not realize the overall effect it has on the rest of the household and every other soul living inside it. Now; we have to find a solution to help those kids whose parents have been divorced to be guided to do well in school, have better relationships and have successful lives and marriages.

In today’s society there are many different type of families, such as traditional families, broken families, blended families, and single families. Blended families are becoming more and more common. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(2002), one third of marriages after ten years end in divorce. About sixty five percent of remarriages involve children, therefor one in three Americans are now a stepparent, a step child, a step sibling, or some other member of a blended family.(Lucas, Nicholson, Erbas, 2013) Research has shown that children that have experienced divorce have more personal issues as well as problems with their own romantic relationships because they are unknowingly repeating the communication behaviors set by their parents than children with a stable

Studies have shown temporary and long lasting effects mentally, physically and emotionally on children of divorce. As divorce rates continue to heighten, so does the likelihood that a child of divorced parents may have a larger risk of adjusting in the areas of psychological development, behavior,

Divorce in and of itself does not harm children; it is the intensity and duration of the conflict between parents that negatively impacts a children adjustment. After a divorce or separation, it isn’t uncommon for children to display some behavioral issues. A child acting out shouldn’t come as a complete surprise because after all, a divorce is a challenging obstacle for the entire family to go through. Behavioral issues in children of divorce can range from mild acting out to destructive behavior. Feelings of anger, confusion, frustration and sadness are all part of the roller coaster of emotions that a child may experience as a result of the events happening in their life. A child’s grades might begin to fall after a divorce. While this change is more common in older children and in boys than girls, it is a statistical probability. However, each child may handle their parent’s divorce a certain way than other children depending on many factors, especially age.

Educational issues were discussed with the parents. It is reported that Wills attended a pre-k program prior to starting at St. David’s School, in NYC. Wills have remained at St. David School, he is currently in the eighth grade. Mr. Dietrich reported that the child has always been an honors student up until last year, when his grades began to drop. The mother reported that the child’s grades were effected due to inability to focus in class. It is reported by educators that the child has historically done very well in school. The headmaster reported that he does not believe the child is currently performing at his potential. Although he does not consider the situation is emergent, he has concerns regarding the impact of the parent’s divorce

In the last two decades divorce has increased substantially leaving couples single and families broken. Divorce is the reality for many families as there is an increase in divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families. Divorce cannot be overlooked as it negatively affects and impacts youngsters for the rest of their lives. Although it is the decision between two parents’s children are hurt the most in the process. The concept of divorce is extremely difficult for children to understand as there are many unanswered questions and uncertainties. “Will my mom or dad remarry and who will I live with?” are concerns children express while going through divorce. Many

Parental divorce often decreases the level of trust that a child of divorce finds in a relationship. Children whose parent’s have divorced exhibit a fear of being rejected by those they become close to, and often distrust that their friends, family members, or significant others will remain loyal and close. This lack of trust often hampers any deepening in the relationship, and is believed to be the result of having a dysfunctional example of a marital relationship set before them. Many children of divorce have reportedly been less trusting of their own or a partner’s fidelity, and have had difficulty in fully committing to or “choosing” one person.