The Growing Epidemic Of Divorce Essay

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.

Watching parents take a home from a traditional family lifestyle to a "broken" home by getting a divorce is very devastating to a child's mental well-being. As Judith Seltzer notes, "Recent reviews summarize evidence that children are emotionally

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 may affect young children somewhat differently than older children. According to Karen DeBord, a child development specialist, there are different stages in childhood, and at each of these stages children have a different understanding of divorce. At the infancy stage children are not capable of understanding the conflict, but may notice a difference in the parents' disposition (DeBord, 1997). Here she states that children may react with a loss of appetite, upset stomach, or anxiety. As a toddler they recognize the loss a parent but cannot reason

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

The rapid epidemic of divorce in the United States within the last 20 years has affected more than one half of the families in the United States. In the past, we have viewed divorce as a short term crisis and not as a longitudinal view of the effects divorce might bring. Divorce does affect children. However, it is not the divorce that is the problem; it is the ongoing conflict between the parents and the child’s coping mechanisms in their own stages of development. Counseling, family therapy, and also having a divorce mediation are all successful ways of coping with the family.

Divorce causes many problems for children and has many implications. Psychological implications include mental health problems and behavioral problems. Social roles are turned inside out and upside down. Children are often pulled in many directions. In the United States divorce is very common and often leaves children confused and without options. Many turn toward violence, crime, drugs, and isolation. Studies show how adults can reduce the tension for these children. Other

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

Watching parents take a home from a traditional family lifestyle to a "broken" home by getting a divorce is very devastating to a child's mental well-being. As Judith Seltzer notes, "Recent reviews summarize evidence that children are emotionally distressed

The end to a marriage is tragic and its effects ripple throughout the lives connected to that couple. Chaos and stress, probably feelings that have been there for some time before the divorce, impact the now divided family. Children in particular are vulnerable to the effects of divorce. Sol R. Rappaport, clinical and forensic psychologist, claims there are five factors as to why children have difficulties post divorce; exposure to parental conflicts, mental health of parents, the involvement of the now secondary parent, financial impact of the divorce, and the child’s perception on why the divorce occurred. With their brains not fully developed, children are unable to process and understand such conflict in relationships, so they resort to alternative ways of expressing their heartache and confusion. The effects of divorce vary depending on multiple factors, however most children experience behavioral and emotional issues that further impact their daily lives. The fact is that the divorce of parents remains with children, to some degree, all of their lives.

Divorce causes both psychological and physical side effects in the involved children. Typically, children enter into an emotional state of fear and anxiety resulting from the monumental changes occurring within their environmental and family contexts. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines anxiety and fear as, “…the emotional response to real or perceived threats, whereas anxiety is anticipation of future threat” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 189). Children of divorce often experience both emotional states simultaneously. Children also experience fear stemming from the current perceived threat of their parents’ divorcing, and they experience anxiety stemming from the perceived threat of a radically different parental relationship and home environment.

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,

In the last 25 years, divorce has become a major issue in American society. Since the turn of the century, the divorce rate has held steady between 4.0-3.2 divorces per 1000 people per year (National Vital Statistics System, 2015). With this rising divorce rate, more children are living between parents, or in single family homes, and many of these children have been exposed to altercations between parents, as well as rough custody battles and divorce settlements. Traumatic experiences like these are highly likely to stick with children of divorce throughout their life, especially if the child is older at the time of the divorce.

The topic that I have chosen to do my research on is the rise in the divorce rate. The reason I have chosen this topic is because I myself have recently been through a divorce. I think everyone by now has heard that fifty-percent of marriages now a days end in divorce. So after going through a divorce myself I would like to know why that is.” Today 59% of the population is married down from 62% in 1990 and 72% in 1970. One of the first things I looked at was the average length of a marriage. I found that that average length of first marriages that end in divorce for males is 7.8 years and 7.9 for females. I found that interesting since my marriage lasted a little over seven years. A few other interesting statistics that I found where that

“When you look around this building [district office], you will see a high rate of divorce. I’m certain that significantly more than 50% of district administrators here are divorced. I am part of this statistic. At this level of leadership, there are many tolls on personal relationships. We are discussing a 24-7 job with high and very public expectations.” –P3