The main cause of the increasing divorce …show more content…
These children through evidence are twice or three times more likely to suffer from serious social/psychological problems. Female children were three times to be teenage mothers and boys were more than two times likely to have spent time in prison before the age of 32 (Wilcox, 2009). Remarriage also does not help as these changes create further stress for children who ideally thrive in an environment of stability and security. The most startling data is provided by leading sociologist Paul Amato who claims that if the United States enjoyed the same divorce rate as that in the 1960’s the country would not have nearly three quarters of a million children failing their grades, 1.2 million being suspended from school, half a million acts of delinquency by children, about 600,000 children receiving therapy and seventy thousand suicides in children. He goes on further in his research to indicate that these children are mainly from divorces where there was virtually no conflict between the partners as this is the case in two thirds of the divorce cases in the research (Amato, 2010). It seems to suggest that the greatest damage occurs when one or both partners have drifted apart or because of a partner’s unhappiness or pursuit of a partner outside of the marriage. This causes the children to lose their faith in commitment and love between adults. The other realities include a physical shift of home, a lower level of household income, a highly stressed mother as well as long absences of the father. Unwilling participation in a divorce seems to be mainly faced by the male partner. Thus they report a higher level of disturbance in their overall well-being post the divorce. In a no fault divorce case these participants will mostly lose their homes, half their income as well as unrestricted access to their children even if they have not indulged in any activities to undermine the marriage itself