Divorce, in the legal sense, seems fairly simple. Emotionally, however, the toll that divorce takes on people involved can be very detrimental. This year, I sought to explore the thematic thread of the effects of children’s emotional development growing up with divorced parents. I chose this topic because I was thoroughly interested in the psychological effects of divorce on everyone involved, specifically the children of the parents separating. I believe that I came into this project with a unique outlook, growing up in a loving, two parent household. This allowed me to learn about my topic with no prior experience or possible bias towards the subject. Divorce refers to the separation of two spouses from each other legally. However, through …show more content…
In The Diviners, Meredith Laurence describes the dangers of the spiraling effects of our actions on others. She wrote, “The infinite capacity of humans to wound one another without meaning or wanting to (Laurence).” Sometimes, people do not realize the damage they can do to others, especially when their actions affect themselves so greatly as well. Parents going through divorce have a lot on their mental plate, dealing with losing someone they once loved as well as the legal aspects of it all. Many times, it is difficult for parents to understand the difficulties that children go through as well. As a whole, parents should consider the effects that a divorce will have on their children prior to going through with the divorce. In Interest of the Child, Marsha K. Moore says, “Don’t let your hurtful ways decide their fate (Moore).” The stress put on a child during a divorce takes an emotional toll on them that can stay with them throughout the rest of their life, causing damage to their mental state and ability to form relationships. Children should not have to be put in the middle of a separation, and their mental development should not have to be stifled due to their parent’s
While everyone knows divorce is tough on kids, researcher and writer, Elizabeth Marquardt, says even when the split is amicable, kids still suffer. For her controversial new book, “Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce,” Marquardt spent three years interviewing 1,500 young adults-half from divorced families-who described the painful emotional, moral, and spiritual dilemmas they faced. Marquardt talks with NEWSWEEK’s Peg Tyre about the pain children of divorce may be harboring and what parents can do about it.
Divorce introduces a mass change in children’s life. As I told a story in the beginning of the essay, do you wonder what consequences she might be facing? Do you know how she might be feeling living a life without mom? 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.
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+)..
Many families in the United States are separated or divorced. My family is a part of the divorce statistics. My mother and father divorced in 2001. I was four years old and my brother was two. My brother and I have to deal with the packing and the repacking of the bags every week. There was plenty of personal and social reasons behind the divorce. Some personal reasons were lack of commitment, too much arguing, marrying too young, and having kids at a young age. My parents got married at the age of 18. My mother had me at the age of 19, and she had my brother at the age of 21. That put a strain on their marriage, and that caused my parents to argue all the time. My father also worked all the time to support us. He was the only one with a job
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.
A study was done by Ed Lerner on children with divorced parents and results convey that “close to half said that after the divorce they felt like a different person with each of their parents.” Not being able to be the same person in each environment can cause identity issues and can arouse weird feelings toward their parents. Also, when the children reach adulthood and have children of their own, they might treat their children the same way which can cause a never ending cycle. Since divorce is extremely stressful for the child, they need “the affection and attention of both parents” (Moiser). Having the attention can ultimately release the emotions that the child has been building up and can change their views on divorce.
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...
Graham Blaine Jr. who is the Chief of Psychiatry at Harvard University health services writes a chapter in the book Explaining Divorce to Children. This chapter is entitled “The Effect of Divorce upon the Personality Development of Children and Youth.” He addresses this chapter to parents who are considering getting a divorce or are in the middle of the divorce process. The author uses a combination of Ethos and Pathos to support his theory on divorce. Blaine uses these strategies to highlight the mixed emotions a child may endure while going through such a confusing stage of their early lives. This then gives the audience a better understanding of the certain personalities children may gain while coping with sad situation of split parents. He also draws on his experience as a psychiatrist to give statistics as well as true stories to back up his reasoning.
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.
Parental divorce has led a major impact on children’s life. The life that follows after divorce is significantly changed from how life was before. It is observed that divorce have unlike affect on young child and adolescent. Young child are closely c...
Children, whom are involved in divorce deal with much emotional baggage, which carries along other issues dealing with behavior and social issues. Dealing with divorce is a stressful experience for a child, before it happens and dealing with it after the divorce is finalized. Ongoing parental conflict ...
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.
Children will be suffered conflict with the interaction with their parents and siblings, and other aspects in their family life by cause of the divorce (Berk, 2010). Some parents who decide to get divorced that they were waiting the time on arguments and fights. Also, these parents use their children to punishment to one to each other. For this situation, children have a lot of conflicts on their emotions, and they have issues in their security. For instance, the custody’s fights are the biggest battle during the separation, and parents develop a lot of stress during this process. In the majority of the cases, mothers have the custody of their children, and they have to raise as a single mother. Also, the children tend to develop a lot of fears and about what they want to do. The divorce brings several negatives on children, and children live with a lot of stress during the divorce process. As well as, each child is different, and they
A divorce is defined as “a judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or part, especially on that releases the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations” as stated by www.dictionary.com/browse/divorce. In current society divorces has been a well-known phenomenon and is quite common t everyone. Couples are getting divorced die to many reasons. Some of them are, but not limited to other love affairs, loss of romantic feelings, infidelity, getting married to young or even conflicts in the home between the two spouses. It is a heavy concept that impacts child(ren) and family one way or the other, both advantageous and negatively.
A divorce is a legal way to resolve a marriage in other words a divorce is an action between married people to terminate their marriage. It can also be called dissolution of marriage and is basically the legal action that ends a marriage before the death of a spouse. The legal separation of man and wife, affected, for cause, by the judgment of a court, and either totally dissolving the marriage relation, or suspending its effects as far as concerns the cohabitation of the parties. The dissolution is termed “divorce from the bond of matrimony,” or, in the Latin form of the expression, “a vinculo matrimonii” the suspension, “divorce from bed audboard,” “o mensa ct