Effects of Divorce on the Family

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Effects of Divorce on the Family

Statistics of the Stepfamily Foundation suggest that about one out of every two marriages ends in divorce and more American children will most likely be living in a stepfamily situation in the year 2000. Most parents agree that a divorce of a family has a negative effect on children and stepfamilies are harder on a child's development than living in a nuclear family. Dr. Judith Wallerstein has studied 25 years of the effects of a divorce on 26 children. She concluded that in the her group study of children were generally less disciplined, had more health problems, displaced a more antisocial behavior, exhibited lower academic performance and suffered from physiological or sexual problems. Furthermore, the Center of Law and Social Policy (CLASP) also suggest that stepfamily children will be more likely indulge in deviant behavior and displayed the same traits as Dr. Wallerstein suggested in her study of divorced parent children.

Two brothers of a five-child stepfamily (three biological brothers and a stepbrother and stepsister) were interviewed to study how their lives were effected by living in a divorced family and then, introduced into a stepfamily situation with two stepsiblings and a stepmother. This interview was conducted on two brothers, one who is thirty-two (oldest) and the other who is thirty years old (middle brother) today. The oldest brother was eight and the middle brother was six years old at the time that their parents got a divorce with the father gaining custody over them. There was also a younger brother who was four years of age at the time of the parent's separation. Their biological mother left the house and regularly saw her kids from their journey from childhood ...

... middle of paper ...

...gle with self-confidence and the middle brother thought he had a short attention span. But, the brothers' struggles and issues were no different that what a nuclear family would struggle with multiple siblings, except the sibling rivalry between the stepsiblings and biological siblings. Overall the two brothers did not regard the way their lives turned out and actually thought they had a very loving family life compared to what other families have gone through with in dealing with being in a divorced and/or stepfamily situation.

Bibliography:

Arnold, Chandler. "Children and Stepfamilies: A Snapshot." CLASP November 1998.

(15 March 2000).

Miller, Claudia. " Divorce Doesn't Go Away." Children's Advocate newsmagazine .

January - February 1998. (15 March 2000).

No Author. "Divorce and Children." Family Research Council. (15 March 2000)

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