Emotional Effects Of Divorce On Children

Divorce is a big deal for the people getting divorced and the people around them. Parents might not realize it but their children are usually the ones affected the most by the divorce. Sometimes the child will take the divorce very seriously. However, some children like to pretend the divorce isn’t actually happening. The child can be affected by their own emotions, the way they live after the divorce, and also their relationships with family and friends can be affected. The first thing that can be affected after a divorce, mainly for a child, is their own emotions. They can have and feel a lot of different emotions during the divorce process. For instance some kids get very angry with their parents for getting a divorce and putting them …show more content…
Levine says that “many young people develop a fear of abandonment when their parents are headed for divorce” (21). The more often the child sees and hears their parents arguing the more likely they are to become angry with them. They can even become ashamed of their parents always arguing. 20 to 25 percent of divorced couples continue fighting even after they are divorced. “one of the most important factors that affect a child’s adjustment to divorce is how much the parents fight in front of them” (Karuppswamy and Myers-Walls). After watching their parents fight for a while they will attempt to get their parents back together. Some even think if they can get their parents to spend time together it will cause them to realize they still love each other. The way the parents treat each other throughout the child’s lifetime can also affect the child’s love life. It will sometimes cause the child not to commit in a relationship when they start dating. Portnoy writes that “the higher the conflict during the divorce the more likely the child was to see his or her life through the filter of divorce” (129). If the parents have a good outlook on the divorce so will the