How Divorce Affects Children

Improved Essays
Divorce is now a common thing. Many do not take into consideration, how much harm such a thing could do to a child involved. The process is very stressful and causes a lot of harms. Divorce affects children in psychological, educational, and emotional fields.
Divorce is the dissolution of marriage by a court of law or another competent body. Divorce became known in the early 1920s, however, it was not widely supported. Many were looked down upon and degraded for a divorce. Today, about 26% of all children under 18 years of age live with; a divorced parent, separated parent, or stepparent, according to the most recent available data. Divorce rates skyrocketed in the 1960s, due to war. However, divorce did not become an “everyday thing” until
…show more content…
The most common emotion recorded has been anger. Anger is highly accounted for in a divorce, but not in all cases of divorce. Studies show that kids often blame a certain parent for the divorce, which creates feelings of distrust and anger towards a certain parent. Anger amongst spouses also occurs; a lot of cases come up where one parent is determined to fix the broken marriage while the other does not. Such a thing results in a wave of anger and hate. If a rejected spouse cannot re-establish a partner 's love, at least, he can cause that ex-partner enough pain so as not to be completely ignored or forgotten (Kessler, Peter S.). Anxiety is also one of the most common feelings, throughout and after the divorce. Children and parents often feel less in control of one’s life. Children report worrying about where they will be living, and whom will be housing them. Adults tend to have anxiety over assets earned throughout a previous marriage. Females, both children, and adults, tend to worry about whether they will get the kids or not. In cases where the male gained custody of the children, the women were the “bad” one. Some adults in their early 20s still report distress from a divorce, ten odd years later. Those that still reported still feeling unease after 10 years also had reported high conflict levels between their parents (Laumann-Billings, Lisa 683). The children that witnessed the conflict between parents resulted in more harmful emotional effects. Children and teens that reported feelings of loss often regarded towards the absence of a father. Many reported not being talked to about the divorce and claim that if such actions had been taken, the effects might not have been as bad. The emotional distress and feeling of unease, go hand in hand. Children are created with curious minds and need some information to understand the circumstances. However, not all children and teens are affected in such

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The result of the divorce brought upon the children make them have built up emotion. From the arguing, to physical abuse, to leaving the home are factors of how it affects the children just as much as the parents. Some effects from the divorce can be lost of interest, isolation, disrespect and going down the wrong path. For example, in the movie “The Last Song” the movie producer talks about how divorce affected the main character's life, “[Ronnie] Stole and skipped school while hanging with the wrong crowd. Also gave up piano because she lost interest. She isolated herself from her family, and is disrespectful to her father, not giving him a chance” (The Last Song).…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For children, trying to understand the changing dynamics of the family may leave them distracted and confused. This interruption in their daily focus can mean one of the effects of divorce on children would be seen in their academic performance. The more distracted children are, the more likely they are to not be able to focus on their school work (Effects of Divorce on Children | FamilyMeans).…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In today’s society divorce is not as big of a deal as it used to be. Divorce rates keep escalating throughout the years. Many years ago, there was a myth that started that if the parents are unhappy, the kids are unhappy as well. So divorce could help the parents and the child, “What’s good for mom or dad is good for the children,” it was assumed. Now today there are numerous amounts of research going on, all pointing at the hard fact that kids suffer when parents get a divorce, and the divorce doesn’t make the parents any happier. Divorces are easier when there are no children in the situation, but when there are children the effects upon the children cannot only be devastating but permanent. Parents who are thinking of a divorce need to be asking themselves the question of, “How are my kids going to be affected by this situation?” Children have the attitude that their mom and dad should be able to work through and solve any issue. The effects of divorce on children are more likely to be…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Divorce introduces major changes within a family dynamic no matter what the age of the individuals involved. Divorce carries out heartbreak, pain, and confusion. Children are extremely susceptible to the pain and confusion that accompanies the divorce of their parents. Children witness the loss of love between parents, undergo the adjustment of two different households, and experience the daily absence of one parent while living with the other, all of which create a challenging new family dynamic. Various responses occur due to this stressful change among childhood, school age and adolescent children.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Divorce is a very prominent occurrence in American families; statistics show that nearly forty to fifty percent of Americans divorce at sometime. Divorce, often looked down upon, may be necessary to resolve complications. Many significant problems may arise from a divorce however. Three predominant effects on children who have divorced parents are mental issues, social problems, and financial instability.…

    • 124 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life with divorced parents can be a challenge for some children. Some of the reasons are that divorced parents can impact their children’s communication, security, and stability. The impact on children’s communication, insecurity, and stability can cause problems with few aspects of the children’s daily lives for example, in the relationships in school or work.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Divorce affects to child especially to teenagers very negatively. I remember when I was thirteen, I started to think about consequences of divorce. My emotions, especially ones about my dad was buried so deep in me that whenever I took time to think about my situation, I broke down and wanted to speak up. I wanted to go to his house and tell him that how bad he was, but instead I would think about my mom and support her during the hard periods. In addition, I noticed that there are different way of thinking about divorce and his consequences. For example, boys more likely are thought to be tougher and therefore if they want to take out their anger, they just hurt through violence or just do work out. On the other hand, girls are more sensitive, they usually express their anger or fear through cries. In my case I hide everything inside of me. Even it’s been 15 years sine my parents are divorced, I still have that emotion (Abandonment) on me. For instance, to be abandonment on something such as relationship. The divorce impact me to have a abandonment emotional…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article, “The effects of divorce on America”, written by Patrick Fagan and Robert Rector explains how divorce is not only hurting society but children. This article expresses the effects divorce has on a child’s life including educational ability, job stability, and emotional health. When children go through a divorce they are sometime left in the turmoil and are forced to make very difficult decisions which adds stress to the traumatizing experience. The authors said most of the emotional and psychological damage is due to the degenerating relationships with the two parents, or when one child and a parent. Upon reading this article I realized divorce not only effects the family involved but also future generations. However, these authors…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Divorce is the one of the leading causes of the reasons families break up. Divorce is a very fragile situation and effects children just as much as the parents. The divorce rate continues to escalate .According to Cherlin; 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 in 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).Children with divorced or divorcing parents often experience a sense of abandonment, because their parents…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This topic involving divorce and children is one topic that has always been interesting to me my entire four years of studying sociology. Today divorce has a huge impact on a child’s life and the way they act and communicate in life. Almost half of the American children today must cope at some point in their lives with the breakdown of their parents’ marriage. Lots of research and my studies still leave us with many questions on how divorce affects children, are parents better off staying together for the child’s sake? Or Is divorce the right thing to do?…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore to these difficult, cross-sectional studies, current findings from two methodologically and conceptually diverse longitudinal study developments also specify that divorce interrelated problems continue over time for various children. It gives the impression that long term heritage of parents who divorce consist of both and developmental disruption and emotional pain for many children when divorce several converging lines of evidence, propose that parental divorce exerts a lasting damaging impact on at least a substantial minority of the children involved.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, it has estimated that every year, over one million American children suffer because of divorce of their parents. When this happens, the child or children are faced with multiple stressors. The divorce introduces massive changes in the life of the child from what was previously perceived to be normal. Things such as witnessing the loss of love between their parents and breaking up their marriage, living in a different household setting, and the daily absence of one parent in the family can have a profound effect on the child.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Children are sweet creatures, they can be affected easily by anything around them. But what really affect their psychology terribly is the occurrence of divorce. In the book “Single Parent Families” the author states “Children need to feel secure by their parents and that they will be always watching them. The parents who are having a feeling of heart breaking they should not talk with their children, they should find someone who is and grown-up enough to understand his/her feelings without affecting the children psychology.” (Healey, 4). In the book “Single-Parent…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Divorce affects many members of the family, including children. Statistics show that annually more than one million children will go through the process of divorce within their family per year (Bing, Nelson & Wesolowski, 2009). The study reported that 40% of all children will experience parental divorce during their lifetimes (Arkes, 2013). This study illustrates that there are numerous consequences of parental divorce on children. When compared to children from non-divorce households, children from divorced families have more stressful relationships with other members of the family, poorer academic performance in school, and delayed psychological development (Cartwright, 2008). Additional research found children from…

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As of 2014, after the release of the most recent census survey, the United States divorce rate was recorded as 6.9% per 1,000 total population (“National,” 2014). As much as it hurts both adults involved in the separation, if there are children from the marriage, it affects them more. As stated by Slaikeu (1996), “divorce creates a temporary state of disorder and disorganization,” (as cited in Guinart & Grau, 2014, p. 409). Children can become confused and angry. They may even blame themselves for not being ‘good enough’ or worth the effort it would take their parents to stay together. Divorce introduces a massive change in a child’s life. Having to go back and forth between two households and getting used to the daily absence of one parent is physically and mentally hard on kids. Children of divorced parents may begin to feel depressed and anxious, have behavioral problems, or struggle with relationships as they move into adulthood.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics