Essay On Negative Effects Of Divorce On Children

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In today’s society, divorce rates are increasing at an astounding rate. The statisticians at Divorcesource.com state that increasing divorce rates are leaving close to fifty percent of children growing up in single parent families. As one looks around at the present situation in the world they can spot children who have been exposed to divorce between parents, either civil or violent; divorce still affects the child in a negative way. When parents divorce, children are all affected but, in slightly different ways. Some children will place the blame entirely on themselves, while others who witness divorce will be more prone to look for love in strange places and develop violence in their own relationships. Another affect that divorce has on children is that it makes the child more likely to have troubles staying in long term relationships (Wallerstein, 1989). Young children especially, are unable to cope with the stress and drama of divorce and custody battles, leaving these children who experience divorce first hand, affected the worst (Whitehead.1998). When young people are exposed to the disturbance of divorce the psychological, emotional, and physical damages they endure remain with them for their entire lives and affect them negatively.

Children and adults tend to view things that happen in their surroundings very differently. A parent’s point of view regarding a divorce is not at all similar to the perspective of a child caught in the center of the feud. The parents are able to perceive the problems in their marriage and foresee how they might escalate into dangerous or unhappy situations if left untreated. When two parents are contemplating divorce their minds are much more mature than the mind of a child, therefore the p...

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...t is believed that the damage done to the child will be drastically reduced and as a result diminishes the child’s chances of developing problems in their future.

Over one million children are affected by divorce every year and this number is steadily increasing. Divorce impacts children in very astounding and devastating ways. Children who are exposed to divorce are likely to put the entire blame on themselves, have no example to base their relational skills on so they make poor mate selection, and have a hard time establishing and maintaining relationships for the rest of their lives. These reasons all provide evidence that children who experience the stress and trauma of divorce are affected emotionally, psychologically, and physically. In turn the damage that is inflicted remains with them for the rest of their lives and will continue to cause problems.

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