Divorce is the disunion between a wife and husband from a no longer existing marriage. The reasons leading to divorce are numerous and wide-ranging, however, the conflicts that occur after a divorce is a separate war. While divorce eases conflicts between mother and father, its impact on children affect their emotional, mental, and physical, well beings due to the unstable and traumatic experience and change in lifestyle.
Divorce's most critical victims are the children. Families are fragmented and the children are left in despair and displaced out of their comfort zone. Research has proven that children are greatly affected by the impact of divorce through many first hand accounts. According to the study done by Judith Wallerstein, Lilly,
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As children hit their teenage years, they are bombarded with hormones, which affect them to become sensitive, defiant, and independent. The best solution to their delicate stage in life is to establish a comfort zone. However, when that comfort zone is demolished due to divorce, children become unstable and experience negative emotional effects. According to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011, "children are more likely to suffer anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem (Hansen)." Children try to establish their own comfort zones in friends rather than in their family. They depend on friends and look towards them for advice and help. Most cases than not, parental guidance is more reliable and practical than guidance from peers or friends. Furthermore, personal relationships are also affected by divorce. The children of divorced families grow up and have unique perceptions on relationships with their mates. The children grow up to fear commitment and avoid attachment, in anxiety of divorce and or an unstable relationship. Nicholas H. Wolfinger of University of Utah in 2005 expressed that "children of divorce are more likely to divorce as adults...and marry as teens (Hansen)." The divorce greatly impacts lives of children as they affect emotional wellbeing and relationships among people in their adult
The article “Divorce and Its Effects on Children” by Kelvin L. Seifert and Robert J. Hoffnung states about the effects of the divorce under the children. The authors say “most parents who divorce must make major adjustments in their lives, and these adjustments often affect their children deeply.”(Kelvin, Robert, 1). Most of the adjustments are different by the children gender and sometimes the relationship between parents and their children deteriorate during and immediately after a divorce.
Divorce is something that has been discussed and studied many times, as it is becoming more common in the United States. The children are the main ones being effected by the split relationship, however the amount of impact of the effects are based on many variables. I became interested in this subject because my best friends parents recently filed for divorce and I wanted to understand in what ways was this going to affect him in his life now and in the future.
In America, about one in every two marriages will end in divorce. Around 60% of those divorcing couples have children. (Cherlin, 2012). Half of the marriages in America end in divorce, and more than half of those couples have children, which means that about every other divorce that is filed in America, a child is impacted. Between 850,000 and 950,000 divorces occur each year. (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC., 2014). Given that roughly 60% of those divorcing couples have at least one child, at least 510,000 children are affected a year. Estimates have been done to suggest that in the near future, 70% of divorces could involve children under the age of eighteen. (Block, Block, and Gjerde, 1986). Because of the large number of children in America having broken families, it is important to understand the effects of divorce on children’s' day to day lives so that they may be provided for in a proper and beneficial way.
Divorce is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, significantly affecting children’s well-being. It radically changes their future causing detrimental effects. According to (Julio Cáceres-Delpiano and Eugenio Giolito, 2008) nearly 50% of marriages end with divorce. 90% of children who lived in the USA in the 1960s stayed with their own biological parents, whereas today it makes up only 40% (Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Such an unfavorable problem has been increasing, because in 1969, the legislation of California State changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing causes (Child Study Center, 2001). This resolution was accepted by the other states and later, the number of divorced people has been steadily growing. Such a typical situation is common for most countries in the world, which negatively affects children’s individuality. However, remarkably little amount of people can conceive the impact of marital separation caused to offspring. (? passive) Many children after separation of parents are exposed to a number of changes in the future. They have to be getting used to a further living area, feelings and circumstances. Their response to divorce can vary and depends on age, gender and personal characteristics. This essay will show the effects of divorce on children under various aspects such as educational, psychological and social impact. In addition, it will contain data about the divorce rate in the US and present disparate reactions of children. It will also include adequate recommendations for parents as to how act to children after divorce, in order to minimize the adverse effect on children.
Divorce is a heavy concept that has many implications for those involved. The situation becomes even more consequential when children are considered. As divorce has become more commonplace in society, millions of children are affected by the separation of the nuclear family. How far-reaching are these effects? And is there a time when divorce is beneficial to the lives of the children? This paper will examine some of the major research and several different perspectives regarding the outcomes of divorce for the children involved, and whether it can actually be in the best interest of the kids.
Children of divorced parents may have a lower sense of psychological well-being than children who grew up with intact families the range of feelings that a child may encounter include: disbelief and denial, sadness, loss, loneliness, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, relief, and hope. Some children may experience long-lasting emotional effects into their adulthood that damage their ability to preserve relationships. The result of parental divorce shapes children emotionally and may impact self-esteem, future relationships, dating and marriage (Armando Loomis and Booth 895+)..
Most people, when thinking about divorce, worry about the impact that it has on the children that are involved. Even though children are most likely better off if totally incompatible parents separate instead of staying together, divorce is about loss and change, and it is still hard for children. Everyone knows that divorce has its effects on children. There are three different sources that try to explain these effects. Graham Blaine Jr. states that divorce is a threat to all children, whereas Rhona Mahony states that divorce is not always the cause of behavioral or academic problems in children coming from divorced families. Yvette Walczak and Sheila Burns state that the extent of the damage can be determined by the parents and their methods of explanation to the children.
The statistics of divorce are only growing. The 1970’s was a time when divorce rates were high. Information gathered in a study of long term effects on divorce on children state that divorce rates grew 70 percent in the U.S. from 1970 to 1977. The facts in the long term effects study show that the reality of divorce today is 2 of 5 children will experience divorce before they reach the age of 18, about 25 percent children will spend some time in a step-family, and there are about 1,250,000 divorces per year (D. Matthews). What is known for sure is that divorce affects children. Trust and relationships are affected by parents divorcing.
Divorce is a very common word in today's society. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage or a complete or radical severance of closely connected things"(Pickett, 2000). This dissolution of marriage has increased very rapidly in the past fifty years. In 1950 the ratio of divorce to marriage was one in every four; in 1977 that statistic became one in two. Currently one in every two first marriages results in divorce. In second marriages that figure is considerably higher, with a 67% average (National Vital Statistics Report, 2001). One critical aspect of divorce is often not taken into consideration: How it affects children. Every year 1.1 million children are affected by divorce (Benjamin, 2000). Children from divorce or separation often exhibit behavioral and long-term adjustment problems (Kelly, 2000). Throughout this paper I will discuss divorces effects on children at different age levels, how they react, and what can be done to help them.
Children today are busy with friends, sports, and other circular activities. There are countless opportunities and dreams which most children only imagine accomplishing. What if one day, that was all to change. Suddenly, their life is a complete mess. Children and teens are not mentally prepared to withstand a divorce between the two people they think can get through anything. It is not fair for someone so innocent to have their world completely flipped upside down and their life changed forever. Divorce can change not only the child’s life, but also the way they talk, think, and behave. Focus on the Family points to a decline and a regression in a child’s behavior which includes drug use, crime, and sexual behavior because of divorce. Grades tend to drop and the likeliness of graduation is diminished. “Negative attitudes become apart of their life and fantasies begin to play a role” (2006-2007). According to the author Desia, in her article about how children are affected by divorce, she
It is unfortunate that marriages sometimes end and there are children caught in the middle of the marriage but it may be worst for the parents to stay together simply for the children’s sake. However when parents do divorce the children are the most effected by the divorce. Often enough the divorce causes children to feel displaced and also to have feelings that their world is coming to an end. These children tend to grow into adults with either extreme emotional detachment and self-esteem issues or they will have strong family values and try to prevent the cycle from repeating itself but the majority of these children grow up suffering from the divorce.
Children will be suffered conflict with the interaction with their parents and siblings, and other aspects in their family life by cause of the divorce (Berk, 2010). Some parents who decide to get divorced that they were waiting the time on arguments and fights. Also, these parents use their children to punishment to one to each other. For this situation, children have a lot of conflicts on their emotions, and they have issues in their security. For instance, the custody’s fights are the biggest battle during the separation, and parents develop a lot of stress during this process. In the majority of the cases, mothers have the custody of their children, and they have to raise as a single mother. Also, the children tend to develop a lot of fears and about what they want to do. The divorce brings several negatives on children, and children live with a lot of stress during the divorce process. As well as, each child is different, and they
In this current time, the family norms and values are changing drastically. Now we see more marriages getting divorces during the first years. In this era, divorces are common in our society; and people have learned to live by themselves. A while back, cultures thought that having a divorce would be a sin under the eyes of god but many people have forgotten about that sin. Now people get married knowing that if the relationship as a married couple does not work there are chances of requesting a divorce. More of the divorce cases occur because couples are falling apart due to many different reasons, for example; conflict on their marriage, loss of romantic feelings, a spouse committing an affair or some kind of marriage problem. Some of the divorcing couples have children of young age. The children do not have an idea on how to deal with a terrible event like the “Divorce.” Some of the children will have to learn to deal with the divorce at a young age and this dramatic change may cause the child to develop some kind of mental and attitude problems. Parents do not realize in how hard it is for a child to deal with a divorce from their parents. In addition parents should understand that the divorce is affecting more their children than their personal lives. In a divorce may lead a child to have dramatically changes in a daily live; and the divorce can be stressful, sad, and confusing for kids of all ages. Children that experience a divorce have more chances on developing a psychological problem and bad behavior. Children suffer from the separation of their parents and their adulthood may be affected.
Marriage is no longer taken seriously; commitment and monogamy are no longer an essential ingredient. For most couples today, it’s not even considered a part of marriage. The negative effects that divorce has on children should be the number one consideration when a couple hits that hard time in their relationship. Children are psychologically and socially affected by divorce and may need counseling either at the time of their parent’s divorce or in the future. They may react instantly by getting lower grades or becoming depressed or anxious.
In the world we live in today, divorce has unfortunately become a normal thing in our lives. Many married couples are getting divorced for many reasons; problems in the marriage, either a spouse having an affair, a loss of feelings, and many other types of complications. Many divorces involve children who are young and due to their age do not understand what is really going on. We all know someone who has dealt with divorce. Children are the ones who are typically affected the most by the divorce and they will have to learn to cope with their parent’s divorce at such a young age, affecting them in positive or negative ways.