The Effects Of Divorce On Children

Almost 50 percent of all marriages in America today have ended in divorce, 40 percent of these couples also have children (Divorcestatistics.org). Jane, a young 15 year old girl, comes from one of these families. She lived what she thought was a perfect life. She had a nice big home with two parents and two other siblings. She had outstanding grades and exceled in sports tremendously. However she did begin to notice that at home and at her sporting events, her parents were never together. She thought it was strange, but did not think much of it. She had come to a conclusion that her parents both had busy work schedules, that just so happened to work out so when one parent was not home, the other was. A month or so after noticing this strange …show more content…
Jane never thought that anything could affect her outstanding grades in school and performance in sports. Following the divorce, Jane’s perfect grades began to decrease and her stamina in sports began to deteriorate. She no longer had a desire to finish her homework on time and go to her sports practices. Going to her games and not seeing her parent’s together just resulted in her becoming more upset about the divorce. Jane’s parents also began to pick up on behavioral changes in her. Normally, Jane was full of smiles and constantly laughing and joking around. Within a month of hearing the news of the divorce, Jane’s personality changed. Jane constantly sulked around the house and hardly ever smiled. In an article written in 2011, the authors discus the studied fact that when a child’s parents get a divorce, it can lead to behavioral, psychological related, and academic problems amongst them (Amato, Kane, James). This was proved true in Jane’s case. Her parent’s divorce led to a personality and behavior change in herself. When considering their divorce, Jane’s parents never thought that it would hurt her in a negative way. Jane’s parent’s divorce was long and drawn out, which also caused them to fail to consider how their decision would change how their kids felt about …show more content…
In some cases it is for the better, and in others it is for the worst. In an article from the Wall Street Journal, Carl Roberts states that “The court system too often creates winners and losers out of well-intentioned parents" (Jones). What this means is that when going through the process of a divorce, the custody of the children is not always fairly distributed. When this happens, it can upset the children. Once again, Jane and her family were a prime example for this effect of divorce of children. Following the divorce, Jane’s mother had more custody over Jane, her older brother, and her younger sister. Jane’s older brother did not agree with this settlement at all. He began to see his mother as selfish for having them more than their father did. Jane’s brother began to find himself resenting his mother for keeping him from his father. He felt as though his mother was trying act like she was the better parent by taking care of them more of the time, when really Jane’s brother felt like before the divorce that they were both equally great parents. Her older brother’s opinion on their mother had altered from the divorce. Jane’s younger sister on the other hand began to idolize her mother. Because they were with their mother more often than when they were with their father, she began to grow closer and closer with her mother. With spending so much time with her mother, she had it in her