The Short and Long Term Effects of Divorce

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“But in the real world, you couldn’t really just split a family down the middle, mom on one side, dad the other, with the child equally divided between. It was like when you ripped a piece of paper into two: no matter how you tried, the seams never fit exactly right again. It was what you couldn't see, those tiniest of pieces that were lost in the severing, and their absence kept everything from being complete.” (Dessen, S., 2011). Divorce is an event that happens everyday here in the United States that has impacted more than one million of America’s children. Divorce happens when a family unit is legally separated and can often become a very traumatic event to everyone involved, more often than not the children. Studies have shown that recently divorce is becoming more common now than in the past (Children-and-Divorce, 2013). According to Robert Hughes (2009), there are two factors in particular that have an influence in the rising divorce rates in the United States. The first factor is both men and women are relying less on one another for economic survival, focusing mainly on financial survival. As women advance in the workplace, they often qualify for their own medical and retirement benefits which allow them to be less dependent on the male head of household. Women who are successfully employed and self sufficient may be more willing to go through a divorce because they are not perceived as a financially dependent spouse. Financial stability allows for the female head of household to feel more secure when she feels the need to exit a broken marriage. Secondly, the "childless-by-choice" impact of birth control allows couples to divorce without worry for the emotional stress on a child. Couples without children may hav...

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...ocusing on the children. While a divorce was once a rare event and one who was divorced was attached to a negative stereo-type, it has now become as common as a rainy day. For the past few decades, there have been more than a million divorces yearly in the United States (Children-and-Divorce, 2013). When children go through a divorce they fear the loss of one parent, but in some cases the child may also fear the loss of both parents. The children would rather go live with another family member instead of staying with their parents because the stress of the divorce can be so over whelming (Parker, 2010). Parents should always reassure their child, never leave them unattended or alone. Coping with a divorce is hard parents and family members all need to be aware of these issues and do all that they can to help their children get through this tough and trying time.

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