Effects of Divorce on Children

When two parents decide to divorce, their children acquire a really tough pill to swallow. The thought of one’s mom and dad not being together anymore and living with just one of them could potentially cause drastic changes in his or her person. The whole concept of divorce makes it tough on the parents as well. Because of the way in which children are affected, the parents face potential relationship struggles with their children. Research has been done and the effects of divorce differ depending on the current age and stage of life of the children.

A divorce can affect the traditional family dynamic in a multiple ways, including the relationship between children and their parents. The relationship between adolescent children and their parents in post-divorce families is often strained as a result of poor communications. Research indicates that a high degree of conflict between former spouses is one of the strongest detrimental influences on children and parent–child relations (Afifi & Schrodt, 2003). Two key behavior phenomena that can be observed in adolescents, in respect to their relationship to their divorced parents, are “feeling caught” as a mediator and inappropriate parental divorce disclosures. It has been suggested that, because older children have developed cognitive maturity, parents tend to rely on their adolescent offspring to provide support and advice, resulting in increased pressures and responsibilities (Wright & Maxwell, 1991).

As the case may be, children are strongly affected by divorce. Some react differently than others, but all experience some kind of emotional change. Parents who are going through a divorce sometimes try to shield their children from the situation. But regardless of their parents good intentions, children often find themselves in an emotional catastrophe. Instead of protection from the situation, children need support and reassurance during this hard time.

This essay will discuss the effects the relocation after divorce have on the child, the best interests of the child, the presumptions before the divorce trial, the impact of modern technology and the flaws in this research. Divorce has many psychological effects on children. The parents are often oblivious to the child’s feelings as they are fighting their own battle with the ex-spouse or fighting the battle of custody of the child. Children usually have an unbiased approach to both parents and to witness the conflict between the ones they love has detrimental effect on the child. The degree of psychological effects depends on the age of the child.

This is why they keep asking their parents to come back together. Their parents will often keep rejecting their request of coming back together, which also causes negative feelings to appear again during divorce. This is not only because their parents reject the child’s request, but also because children compare themselves with other children whose parents are not separated. Furthermore, some children tend to blame themselves for the divorce of their parents because it is emotionally easier for children to blame themselves than to put the blame on someone else. If the child blames himself or herself, he or she would think that they are the reason for the damage that happened in the relationship between their parents.

Children of any age have difficulty expressing hurt feelings and sadness to parents who are themselves angry and grieving. Responsible parents will develop a parenting plan that coordinates visitation, maintains financial obligations, and takes time to deal with children's feelings in each state of the divorce process (Bankston 382). These parents need to take the initiative and explain to the children what is happening. Also they need to meet the needs of the children, before themselves, to prevent further psychological damage to the kids. When divorced, the children go through many emotional changes.

Parental habits are passed to children. Parents should be careful while doing any action. Various researches illustrates, that children’s from a divorce household are prone to have major negative consequences over positive. Children have to adapt new environment leaving all previous memories. Life is complicated, circumstances are unique and individual are different so there are no easy answers to the questions of how divorce may affect children.

There are many issues and concerns that divorced parents must think about when children are involved. Divorce affects children in many ways such as emotionally, physically, academically, and socially. Although there may be some advantages to divorce, for example divorce is good if the child is being hurt or abused, by one of the parents. The reality is that divorce is bad for many children because it can make the children depressed, and because they have to choose which parent to stay with. Parents should stay in marriage instead of divorce for the sake of the children.

There are a few cases where the children want the divorce to happen. However it is usual, because there are intense conflicts between the parents (Emery). Divorce clearly increases the chance of those children suffering from psychological and behavioral problems. Parent- child relationships develop strains, that lead to losing contact with the one parent who seems to leave and it creates economic hardships (Emery). There was a study to see which parent had full custody of the children.

Unfortunately, this may cause the custodial parent to be upset for not being able to meet the needs of the child. Divorce is hard for those kids who have to face these situations. Most of the studies showed that divorce makes a huge difference in children’s life. I have learned that, when parents get divorced, it breaks the foundation that the child was used to.