The Emotional Effects Of Divorce

As a child one of the biggest worries in life was whether we should jump on the trampoline or play on the swings next, but for some children whose parents are going through divorce life is far from that. Divorce is the legal process of dissolving one’s marriage with someone. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2013), “One out of every two marriages today ends in divorce and many divorcing families include children”. The instant changes are hard to cope with for two adults, putting children through this can have a much more serious effect on them. The changes can leave the child dealing with psychological and behavioural problems, add an abundance of stress for them, and the effects can scar into adulthood.

This may increase the chance the child will suffer psychological and behavioural problems. Colglazier (2006) says, “children of divorce experience five different sages of emotions this includes: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and depression.” Now as some may be thinking these are effects that will be easily forgotten but according to Amato and Booth (1996), “Research suggests that problematic parent-child relations associated with divorce persist throughout the life course” (as cited in Matthews, n.d.). Furthermore Furstenberg and Teitler (1994) say, children from disrupted families are significantly more likely to express discontent with their lives as measured by an index of life satisfaction” (as cited in Matthews, n.d.). If children don’t seek help in health ways to express their emotions they may have long term effects such as anti-social behaviour, separation issues, and or suicide. An option to decrease the chances of these problems is to take the children to counselling. Counselling gives them the opportunity to talk about their emotions and concerns without bias of judgement. As well as, it gives children the benefits of positive development of coping