The Impact Of Divorce On Childhood Development

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.

This paper looks at the effects of divorce on children based on the application of various psychological developmental theories. More specifically, children within the age groups of 4 to 6 and 7 to 11 will be taken into account. The theories explored and applied will include Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Erikson’s psychosocial tasks, Bowlby’s attachment theory, Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, Bandura’s social learning theory and Vygotsky’s, and later Bronfenbrenner’s, ecological or developmental systems approach.

The likelihood of a person’s marriage ending in divorce presently stands at fifty-percent in the United States. As a consequence many children will go through the divorce process as well. What is important to note is that many children go through divorce before the age of six and this is very significant to their development. Most importantly from infancy through the early years of life (preschool years), children are working on forming secure attachments. There have not been many studies done about the impact of divorce on children younger than six years old. Only one study was found where child participants were aged 3 to 6 years (Nair, & Murray, 2005). The few that have found interesting results, discuss how divorce prior to the

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.

Although needed in severe cases of abuse, divorce harmfully impacts, wives husbands and children. The lack of understanding of the primary nature of marriage has brought about a withdrawal from the institution of marriage. Parents need to slow on the uptake and proceed with care before the decision is made that divorce is the best solution for the child. Parents’ marital misery and friction harmfully affect their children’s happiness, comfort and security, but as does being subjected to going through a divorce. Children who are living in very high conflict and tension filled homes may be at an advantage by being detached from the conflicts. (Marriages that run at a lower level of upheaval, conceivably over two-thirds of divorces are of this kind; however divorce can make the children’s circumstances much worse on the heels of a divorce).

In modern day society, many people are finding it is becoming more and more acceptable to get a divorce. Even the word family itself has changed so drastically, it’s no wonder divorce is so high. What many people don’t realize is that divorce can possibly have a serious effect on children and their behaviors. Many studies have been conducted and have shown a variety of long term, as well as short term effects that children have developed after they’ve experienced going through divorce, one effect divorce could have on children is the risk of the child developing behavioral issues.

The change in a family dynamic, such as a divorce, will have a huge impact on a child’s development. During childhood, divorce in a child’s early life is one of the most stressful life events that can occur. Although, all children are not affected, majority of children are more likely to become affected and have a negative impact when it comes to their social and cognitive development. According to Velez et al (2011), “evidence shows that factors such as parental warmth, acceptance, support, family cohesion and firm rule enforcement are positively associated with engagement efforts and negatively associated with disengagement efforts” (pp. 245). At a young age, if children are experienced with a change in their family dynamic, this will lead

Research Question: What are the effects of divorce on the socioeconomic and emotional well-beings of children as they progress through life?

In today 's society, divorce or remarriage rate has been growing rapidly. Divorces is a legal action between married people that is on longer together. Over the last twenty-five years, several studies has indicated that divorce process may affect family characteristics and most especially children 's cognitive performance. Divorce changes children 's lives through parental emotion and behavior. Divorce may also increase the risk of negative outcomes for younger and older children. Children from infant and toddler are less likely to be affected by divorce because is a early development stage (Leon, 2003). The purpose of this study is to better understand how parental divorces affects a child 's development, how children transition from living with both parent or divorces single parent and also.studies, how divorce could influence a child 's behavior, emotions, a child academic and their future relationships. Between young children and older children who react or adjust more to parental divorce.My hypothesis is to see divorce effect a child 's cognitive, emotional and psychological aspect class or at home.

The impact of separated or divorce parents on children can have a devastating effect. Parents who are going through the motions of separation or divorce should pay attention to the children’s emotional and physical state. The effects of divorce and separation may be particularly important for children under the age of four as the rapid developmental changes in the cognitive, emotional, and social domains take place in childhood. (D’Onofrio 1-7) I will be analyzing three different pieces of literature that pertain to this topic. The first piece of literature is a website titled Divorce and Separation by Brian M. D’onofrio; the second, the magazine article Protecting a Child's

In modern time, divorce is something that is gradually becoming more popular throughout America’s society. Healthy marriages are not only beneficial for a married couple but also for the children as growing up in a happy home protects children from mental, physical, educational and social problems (“Marriage and divorce”). There are numerous findings that point to the negative effects that divorce can have on a child’s life. Divorce has been shown to cause emotional and psychological strain for a young person. Specifically, children often experience heightened feelings of abandonment and isolation after a parental separation. Another aspect of divorce that has been shown to impact adolescents is a decline in schoolwork. Children also experience

Over studied in the 40 years, parental divorce has caused a wide range of behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents. Although the media tends to emphasize the negative aspects of divorce and impact that divorce has on children, not all married families are happy ones and they do not always offer a better environment; the majority of children from divorced families are emotionally well adjusted. In the article, reasons of divorce could be difference in cultural values and social integration, race and ethnicity, extramarital affairs…These weren’t the stressors on the kids, it is the diminishing of parenting from the separated parents that made them suffer. The loss of important relationship means the erosion of closeness and meaning of relationship with

50% of all the children born to married parents today, will experience the divorce of their parents’ before they are eighteen years old. Divorce in and of itself doesn’t necessarily harm a child, but the conflict between parents does. A child’s behavior correlates directly with the effects of their parents’ separation. Deep emotional wounds are created before, during, and after divorce and separation. It is rare that you find a child that actually wants their parents to separate, unless the marriage was full of intense conflict and anger. Parents going through a divorce don’t always think about how their child is going to be impacted by it. Children suffer when their parents go through a separation. Divorce increases the risk of psychological and behavioral problems, it makes way for difficulties in the classroom, and the emotional well-being of the child is in danger.

According to Carl Pickhardt Ph.D in Surviving Your Child’s Adolescence “divorce tends to intensify a child’s dependence and accelerates their phases of development, from been preschool children to adolescents.” As mentioned above, it is important to remember that children need their parent’s support during their lives for them to be able to surpass every trial that it encounters difficulty. In agreement with Focus On The Family, children of all ages are affected when divorce splits a family, but different age groups can react in different ways. So much is different and unknown that their lives become filled with scary questions such as “What is going to happen next?” “Who will take care of me”. With one parent moving out, I can lose the