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Essay on The Effects of Divorce

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The Effects of Divorce

Divorce in our society has become increasingly common. Fifty percent of all marriages will end in divorce and each year 2 million children are newly introduced to their parents separation, (Monthly Vital Statistics Report ).
Demographers predict that by the beginning of the next decade the majority of the youngsters under 18 will spend part of their childhood in single-parent families, many created by divorce. During this confusing period of turmoil and high emotional intensity, the child must attempt to understand a complex series of events, to restructure numerous assumptions and expectations about themselves and their world. He or she may be uprooted to a new school, city or neighborhood leaving their …show more content…

The role of the child becomes one of warding off the serious depression that threatens the parents and holding the parent together. Wallerstein calls these children the "overburden child". They accounted for 15 percent of the children in her study. Many become angry at being trapped by the parent's demands, at being robbed at their separate identity and denied their childhood. They are saddened, sometimes beyond repair, at seeing so few of their own needs gratified, (p. 41). Judith Wallerstein also found that divorce has long lasting psychological effect on many children, one that in fact, may turn out to be permanent. Children of divorce have vivid memories about their parens' separation. The details are etched permanently in their minds, more than any other experiences in their lives. She also identified the "sleeper effect" as another long term implication of divorce. It is a delayed reaction to an event that happened many years earlier, (p.60). She saw many young women with acute, delayed depression which she defines as the sleeper effect and warns of it's danger. It occurs when many young women are about to make decisions that have long term implications for their lives. Due to the different studies that have been followed out and the research that I have done, I expect to find many changes in children both short and long term due to the divorce of their parents. I expect that these long

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