Divorce is not an exception anymore. In fact, with the rate of marriage decreasing over the past decade, and the divorce rate remaining steady, we are likely to know more people who are divorced than those who are legally bound.
During this semester we read four novels. Divorce was a common theme in all of them.
Only a few generations ago, American culture rejected divorce as scandalous. Today, law, behavior, and culture embrace and even celebrate it.
It got me to wondering about the children of divorced parents. It got me to wondering, what about the children? Being concerned about them, I decided to research the Disruption of many traditional households. What happens during and after the process of divorce, predominantly to the children. Does parents’ divorce have negative impact on their later outcomes.
After considerable research, I found that an increased social acceptance of divorce over the years has not reduced the negative effects experienced by the children of divorced parents.
Every year, more than a million of American children suffer the divorce of their parents. Divorce causes pain to all involved, but most especially to the children. Though it is showed to be more accepted by society, it may put children in a downward trajectory from which they might never fully recover.
A 2011 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that children of divorced parents often fall behind their classmates in math and social skills, and are more likely to suffer anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem. The reason that math skills are affected is likely because learning math is cumulative. "If I do not understand that one plus one is two," lead researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in sociology Hyun Sik Kim says, "then I cannot unde...
... middle of paper ...
...ge formation behavior and educational attainment.
Wolfinger's research is based on the National Survey of Families and Households, which included detailed information on family background for 13,000 people, and the General Social Survey, which surveyed 20,000 people over a 30-year period.
In conclusion, children of divorce are often subject to many negative effects. “Broken” homes are a tough situation to deal with. Divorce causes many problems and should not always be the solution to family problems, there is counseling and many other solutions to look into before automatically switching to divorce. As was discussed in this research, there are many educational, psychological and emotional effects on children of divorce.
The best solution to all this pain is to be open and honest with children as well as try to seek out help. Divorce should be a last resort.
Children of divorce have a different experience during the holidays, birthdays, and other family events. The process of parental separation alone can pay a toll on a child’s psychological health. Family events may make things awkward around the parents, but that doesn’t even compare to the things children of divorce will have to deal with, even into their adult lives. Constance Matthienssen, author and mother of three, shares in her article “Harry Potter and Divorce Among the Muggles” how her divorce affected her children (“Harry Potter”). Many parents don’t think about a divorce will affect their young children as they grow older, but divorce affects children even into their adult lives. Children of divorce grow to develop negative relationships with their parents, they tend to have poor self-esteem, and they may even find themselves unable to maintain an intimate relationship in their adulthood. Divorce affects every child differently, but it can cause many social issues into their adult lives.
Divorce is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, significantly affecting children’s well-being. It radically changes their future causing detrimental effects. According to (Julio Cáceres-Delpiano and Eugenio Giolito, 2008) nearly 50% of marriages end with divorce. 90% of children who lived in the USA in the 1960s stayed with their own biological parents, whereas today it makes up only 40% (Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Such an unfavorable problem has been increasing, because in 1969, the legislation of California State changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing causes (Child Study Center, 2001). This resolution was accepted by the other states and later, the number of divorced people has been steadily growing. Such a typical situation is common for most countries in the world, which negatively affects children’s individuality. However, remarkably little amount of people can conceive the impact of marital separation caused to offspring. (? passive) Many children after separation of parents are exposed to a number of changes in the future. They have to be getting used to a further living area, feelings and circumstances. Their response to divorce can vary and depends on age, gender and personal characteristics. This essay will show the effects of divorce on children under various aspects such as educational, psychological and social impact. In addition, it will contain data about the divorce rate in the US and present disparate reactions of children. It will also include adequate recommendations for parents as to how act to children after divorce, in order to minimize the adverse effect on children.
The first study to be considered is a qualitative study which spanned a 25 year period and looked at 131 children from divorced families of the 1970’s. It was specifically concerned with growth and development (psychologically and socially) of these children post divorce and had extensive follow-up interviews with both parents and children at 18 months, 5, 10 and 25 year marks. At the 25 year follow-up a comparison group of adult children from intact families who had otherwise similar backgrounds were also interviewed. Some of these “intact” families were ideal while others were filled with conflict, most were somewhere in the middle. This study found a casual relationship between divorce itself and the well-being of the children which was significant all the way into adulthood. The study found that parental conflicts from before the divorce were not dominant in the children’s memories but unhappiness was related mostly to the separation itself (most children in this study had no expectations of the breakup prior to it occurring). The exception to this is when violent events occurred as with 25% of c...
Divorce should be harder to obtain due to the effect that it has on children the main effect it has on the children is depression. “ In the short term divorce is always troublesome for children Mavis Hetherington videotaped and scrutinized the workings of 1400 divorced families since the early 1970’s. Hetherington pinpoints a crisis period of about two years in the immediate aftermath of separation when the adults, preoccupied with their own lives, typically takes their eye off parenting just when their children are reeling from loss and feeling bewildered” (Hethrington 2). This article states that the short term effect of divorce affects the kid deep because they feel that they lost one forever and in those 1400 many of the kids felt the effect of the divorce. “Wallerstein has told us that divorce abruptly ends kids’ childhood, filling it with loneliness and worry about their parents, and hurting them prematurely and recklessly into adolescence. (Wallerstein 2).” This later affects the kids life because they try to think of happy memories they had but really all they can think about is the parent that they loss due to the divorce. “Contrary to the popular perceptions, the alternative to most divorces is not life in a war zone. Though more than 50 percent of all marriages currently end in divorce, experts tell us that only about 15 percent of all unions involve high levels of conflict. In the vast number of divorces, then, there is no gross strife or violence that could warp a youngster’s childhood. The majority of marital break-ups are driven by a quest for greener grass—and in these cases the children will almost always be worse off. (Zinsmeister 2)” this proves to me that when people get a divorce they most of the time don’t ...
Most people, when thinking about divorce, worry about the impact that it has on the children that are involved. Even though children are most likely better off if totally incompatible parents separate instead of staying together, divorce is about loss and change, and it is still hard for children. Everyone knows that divorce has its effects on children. There are three different sources that try to explain these effects. Graham Blaine Jr. states that divorce is a threat to all children, whereas Rhona Mahony states that divorce is not always the cause of behavioral or academic problems in children coming from divorced families. Yvette Walczak and Sheila Burns state that the extent of the damage can be determined by the parents and their methods of explanation to the children.
However, when aspects of society are functioning incorrectly, this is when social problems occur. Divorce is very controversial issuewhen addressing it as a social problem due to the many different beliefs. Many people in society believe that divorce often has negative effectson the family intuition that affects society as a whole. Meanwhile, others believe marriageand divorce does not affect society as a whole and divorce is a part of life and only affects the individuals involved. Today, functionalists often see divorce as a major failure in society.
Divorce is a very common word in today's society. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage or a complete or radical severance of closely connected things"(Pickett, 2000). This dissolution of marriage has increased very rapidly in the past fifty years. In 1950 the ratio of divorce to marriage was one in every four; in 1977 that statistic became one in two. Currently one in every two first marriages results in divorce. In second marriages that figure is considerably higher, with a 67% average (National Vital Statistics Report, 2001). One critical aspect of divorce is often not taken into consideration: How it affects children. Every year 1.1 million children are affected by divorce (Benjamin, 2000). Children from divorce or separation often exhibit behavioral and long-term adjustment problems (Kelly, 2000). Throughout this paper I will discuss divorces effects on children at different age levels, how they react, and what can be done to help them.
One tough thing about today's American family is divorce. In 1816, one marriage out of one hundred ended in divorce. Then between the years 1869-1888, divorce increased up to one hundred and fifty percent. And the worse, between the years 1960-1980, the divorce rate increased up to two hundred and fifty percent. Divorce rates peaked in 1981 and then started to decline a little during the mid 1980's. However, divorce rates now are as high as they have ever been. Now fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. There are five reasons for the increase in divorce. The first reason is in modern societies; individual happiness is regarded to be important so when people are unhappy with their marriage, they break-up and split. The second reason is it is easier to get divorced financially. The third reason is that women's economic independence has contributed. The fourth reason is the stigma of divorce has lessened so people are not
It is unfortunate that marriages sometimes end and there are children caught in the middle of the marriage but it may be worst for the parents to stay together simply for the children’s sake. However when parents do divorce the children are the most effected by the divorce. Often enough the divorce causes children to feel displaced and also to have feelings that their world is coming to an end. These children tend to grow into adults with either extreme emotional detachment and self-esteem issues or they will have strong family values and try to prevent the cycle from repeating itself but the majority of these children grow up suffering from the divorce.
It is estimated that more than 1,000,000 children each year experience a divorce (Adams 205). There have been various studies pertaining to whether or not divorce has a negative, positive or no effects on the children involved. With loss of a parent due to divorce, the two most common perspectives are that there are in fact effects on children but where they differ is whether or not they are either negative or positive effects. On the negative side it could be seen as a devastating unstable time in an adolescent’s life and on the positive side it can be seen as an opportunity to grow. However, in Portnoy’s article his findings prove that, “children of divorce display higher levels of depression and anxiety, lower self-esteem, and more frequent use of psychological services”
Historically saying, divorce has always been known as a deviance of society and people who are involved in divorce were being looked down on. However, as the world slowly evolves, people’s sense of individualism also amplified; this created the
Divorce is a plague that is destroying numerous families across the United States of America. Sadly, when husbands and wives divorce, the children are often caught directly in the middle. Throughout the years divorce has been becoming more and more common. In the 1920's it was a rare find to know a person whom had been divorced, today it is a rarity not to know of one who has been, or will be divorced. Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike.
In the world we live in today, divorce has unfortunately become a normal thing in our lives. Many married couples are getting divorced for many reasons; problems in the marriage, either a spouse having an affair, a loss of feelings, and many other types of complications. Many divorces involve children who are young and due to their age do not understand what is really going on. We all know someone who has dealt with divorce. Children are the ones who are typically affected the most by the divorce and they will have to learn to cope with their parent’s divorce at such a young age, affecting them in positive or negative ways.
It is possible to overcome those bumps in the road and it is possible to be married until death does you part but it takes work, commitment, sacrifice, trust, honesty and most importantly communication. If you are in a marriage that is now falling apart at the seams, do your kids a favor and stop, take a breath and reevaluate the real issue that is causing the strained marriage. Get with your spouse and talk about the issue and how you both can overcome it together. Now some may argue that their children will be better off in a home where there is no longer yelling, screaming and tension, but from my experience the problems don’t erase; they just change.
In this twenty century, divorce is very common; especially in the America today, the country that focus on their citizen’s freedom. The term "common" here is not that every marriage couples will end up divorce, but it means that the society already accept and have an open might about divorce. In the article "The Making of a Divorce Culture" by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, she had mention that "divorce is now part of everyday American life. It is embedded in our laws and institutions, our manner and more, out movies and television shows, our novels, and children 's storybooks, and our closest and most important relationships." Everyone should have seen or at least hear about it once in their life from their own experience or from someone they