Family values are highly praised, but what happens when the family is broken up? Married couples end up in divorce due to many different reasons, either because of struggles in the marriage, loss of romantic feelings or some other type of marital problem. Most divorced couples have young children that often do not know how to deal with an event like a divorce. Divorce can shake up children in many different ways and it varies based on the child’s gender, age and stage of development. However, all children are affected in someway by their parents divorce.
Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological system of development believes that a child’s developmental foundation consists of multiple layers and these layers are in constant transformation during a child’s development. According to Bronfenbrenner’s many environmental influences will impact the development of the child. In a divorced family a child’s Microsystem will be affected the most due to the fact that this is the child’s foundation, which consist of his parents and immediate environment. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s theory there is a domino effect that happens with the divorce and not only is the microsystem affected but also all of the other four systems are affected. The Mesosystem will not be established, as the relationship with the parents will be interrupted. In the Exosystem a child can be affected by the parent’s reactions of stress due to the daily responsibilities that are now beard upon one parent. In the Macrosystem the child will have little or no value of marriage and finally in the Chronosystem the effects of divorce on children can change almost all aspects of a their life including where they live and with whom they live.
Children are strongly affected by their parents ...
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...ild’s development. I have learned that when families are broken up we must provide the child with support to overcome this difficult situation. A child’s development can be affected and in many cases have serous implications in the child’s attitudes, social development and academic achievements. As a future teacher I would like to learn more about how to provide students of divorced parents with the support needed to understand and accept the families new situation. Most importantly I will inform my future colleagues and family members about the importance on helping children cope with divorce. I will provide them with websites and flyers with valuable information about divorce and the impact on children and their development. We must understand how a child can be affected by a divorce so that we can develop strategies that will ensure a child’s healthy development.
Divorce is a significant and mounting problem influencing children’s social and academic development. It has been found to be one of the most traumatic events that can occur in the life of a child (Beverly, Molloy, Hart, Ginsberg & Mulvey, 2007). Support groups have been found to have a positive effect on students by helping them deal with the situation constructively and mitigating their attention back onto their academic performance and positive peer relations (Beverly et al, 2007). Corey, Corey and Corey (2014) highlight the first step in planning a group is to come up with a proposal. This purpose of this paper is to put forth that proposal for implementation of a divorce support group in a particular school setting.
Love, warmth, comforting, encouraging support from parents, siblings and other relatives brings the best out of the children. Every family has own style and beliefs which affect child’s development. Parents Aspirations and expectations have fruitful or stressful effects on development. Changes in family relations by divorce or death, redundancy or family financial crisis changes many things in child’s development. Also a child who has not formed an attachment or bonded with a primary carer, or whose attachment has been disrupted, may also be affected, as their feeling of personal identity and security will not develop as
When divorced, the children go through many emotional changes. "Children of divorce are more depressed and aggressive toward parents and teachers than are youngsters from intact families. They are much more likely to develop mental and emotional disorders later on in life" (Leo 2000). Children and teenagers have a hard tim...
Children of divorced parents may have a lower sense of psychological well-being than children who grew up with intact families the range of feelings that a child may encounter include: disbelief and denial, sadness, loss, loneliness, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, relief, and hope. Some children may experience long-lasting emotional effects into their adulthood that damage their ability to preserve relationships. The result of parental divorce shapes children emotionally and may impact self-esteem, future relationships, dating and marriage (Armando Loomis and Booth 895+)..
They have to get 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 to act on 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...
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.
The environmental influences must be considered in order to understand the behavioral of a child. Urie Bronfenbrenner was a famous Russian American psychologist who formulated the Ecological Model Systems in 1979. He believed that as a child grow and mature, the way he/she interact with the environment become more complex. The Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model Systems defines how external environments and individuals affect the development of a child. It is made up of four systems that greatly influence the development of a child. The four systems are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. My parents divorced when I was 3 years old and I grew up in a broken family. My microsystem includes immediate relationship I interact with,
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory will be applied throughout this essay to delve into the reasoning behind particular behavioural issues. According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, an individual has multiple environments known as their ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). Bronfenbrenner (1994) suggests that a developing child is influenced by the relationships surrounding them and the best way to understand a child’s behaviour is to look at the numerous aspects of the child’s environment and how they interact with each other. The relationships and environments that the child interacts with have been separated into layers known as the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and the overarching chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The microsystem is the environment where the child has direct face-to-face relationships such as at home, day care and school (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The relationships formed within the microsystem directly impact the development of a child (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). It is through the processes of repeated interactions with people, objects and symbols that the human develops (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The second layer in the ecological model is the mesosystem, which is the interaction between two of the microsystems such as the relationship between a parent and a teacher (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The exosystem is an external environment, with which the
Girgis, George, & Anderson (2011) define marriage as the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally (inherently) fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together. These marriages are intended to last eternity and are partially accomplished by raising children together, yet four of every ten marriages lead to divorce and of these divorces, 35% involve children (Ambert, 2009). Children tend to blame themselves for the divorce and are usually caught in the crossfire. These divorces lead to both stress and depression for children and without a strong sense of family, children will have a huge disadvantage over children with a stable healthy family (Arreola, Hartounian, Kurges, Maultasch, & Retana, 2013). Without the ability to cope with the stress of a divorce, children can be effected in multiple ways including a change in mentality, unacceptable behavioural traits and both short and long term emotional factors that will ultimately lead to a critical issue in child development.
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.
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.
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.
Children are psychologically and socially affected by divorce and may need counseling either at the time of their parent’s divorce or in the future. They may react instantly by getting lower grades or becoming depressed or anxious. Younger children may begin to cling to the parent that remains in the home with them for they fear that both parents will eventually leave them. Older children may begin to rebel or become extremely disobedient and disrespectful. You may see unpleasant attitudes develop and they can become unsocial and no longer desire to be around their friends. Most children feel guilty for their parent’s ...
When a married couple gets divorced, children in the family have trust issues, teens become rebellious, and the couple themselves often go into severe depression or sadness. In my experience, I have seen several of my friends’ parents go through a divorce. Their cheerful and always happy attitude seems to disappear overnight. Children feel as if the divorce is in some way their fault and they can often times be upset about it. Parents should try for the sake of their children to stay together, but when all else fails divorce should be considered. Working together and not letting their children see their unhappiness is one way that adults can help ease the pain. The lives of children is changed drastically after the divorce of their parents.