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The Negative Effects Of Divorce On Children

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When two people go through a divorce, they are making the decision to leave each other’s lives. Some of the many reasons include abuse, early age, and lack of commitment. Over half of children in the United States will go through their parent’s divorce at a young age. It is said that the behavior of children living in a broken family is different than those that grow up with both parents. A divorce can have negative outcomes on a child; things like early sexual practice, loneliness and depression, and poor academic performance. Divorce rates continue to grow over the years. Given that roughly 60% of those divorcing couples have at least one child, at least 510,000 children are affected a year (Block, Block, and Gjerde, 1986). Since divorce rates are so high, it is important to comprehend that most effects of a divorce on a child’s day to day life are negative. One outcome of a child having divorced parents is having sexual interests at an early age. Studies repeatedly show that “daughters of divorced parents will be more likely to approve of premarital sexual intercourse” (Thornton, 1996). The attitude of premarital sex, cohabitation, and divorce changes dramatically; the approval rises. The higher the outcome of early sexual intercourse causes for a higher risk of teen pregnancy; furthermore, the chances of girls with no father figure are more likely to have more sexual partners out of marriage than normal young females. The outcome of early sexual activity in divorced

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