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). It is important to examine the impact of divorce and its relational outcomes to further understand and prevent additional complications within the family unit. Therefor the purpose in this review of literature is to illuminate the underlying factors of divorce that strain the relations between the separated parents and their adolescent children.
Feeling Caught as a Mediator
As satisfaction within a marriage deteriorates, complications between the couple influence the child’s satisfaction within the family unit. Over time, children learn how to mediate arguments between their adult parents in order to seek a communicative agreement. This function, among others, puts children in a place where they feel as if they need to choose a side, one parent or the other. The reason this occurs is because their parents’ demand-withdraw pattern...
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...e a greater communication satisfaction within the post divorce family unit.
It can be concluded that the complex changes in life circumstances that an adolescent experiences throughout and after a divorce can alter relations with one or both parents. Main factors such as children feeling caught between parents and inappropriate parental divorce disclosures can effect parent-child relations in both positive and negative ways. Overall, learning how to communicate in a constructive manner has proven to allow parents to minimize negative effects of divorce on their adolescent children and maintain healthy relations. Future research studies need to be conducted in order to determine which communication strategies work best to prevent negative relations between adolescent children and their divorced parents, assuming the relationship was intact prior to the separation.
The article “Divorce and Its Effects on Children” by Kelvin L. Seifert and Robert J. Hoffnung states about the effects of the divorce under the children. The authors say “most parents who divorce must make major adjustments in their lives, and these adjustments often affect their children deeply.”(Kelvin, Robert, 1). Most of the adjustments are different by the children gender and sometimes the relationship between parents and their children deteriorate during and immediately after a divorce.
Gordon, D. A., & Arbuthnot, J. (2005). Children in the middle: working with divorcing parents. (6. ed.). Athens, Ohio: Center for Divorce Education.
Parental divorce can be highly stressful for adolescents. Adolescence is a transitional time for attachment relationships. Adolescents may struggle to manage the numerous intense emotions they experience. As a result, they may seek one or both parents (attachment figures) for comfort and support. If adolescents perceive their parents are not accessible or non-responsive to their needs for support, they are left to seek others, often friends or romantic partners, or to attempt to regulate their emotions on their own.
There are many different outcomes that the effect of a divorce may have on a child. Though divorce isn't always a positive thing, sometimes there are scenarios where a family is better off this way. According to research, the bond maintained between parent and child is the main change that plays a factor on the child's outcome when a divorce happens. The relationships between parents and their children were found to be more influential than the parents’ marital status. Negative effects were null if relationships remained intact after the divorce. However, sometimes the ability to keep these relationships closely knit just isn't as simple as it was before the divorce. Keeping a relationship intact is especially difficult for the non-custodial parent. (He...
Does divorce have more of an impact on the way American children act today than originally thought? Long ago divorce was a rare occasion and generally people feared it. Nowadays, fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. With that being said, the amount of children subjected to divorce is increasing. Individuals seem to believe a divorce is subjected to just the husband and wife relationships but research has found this not to be the case. Children today are becoming more distant from their parents and peers; some consider divorce as the reason. In research and studies done, it is proven that divorce does have an impact on American children and their emotions. Paying attention to children’s attitudes and the way they interact with other children is one of many ways to know there could be a problem in their life. Adults typically overrun the reality of a child’s feels, especially if they were subjects of intact families as children and aren’t familiar with the feeling of parental divorce. Most children do not want to upset their parents so instead of talking to them about their thoughts and feelings, they choose to stay quiet and distance themselves from everybody. The currency of divorce in modern society damages not only our children’s emotional development, but also their social attitudes.
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+)..
The purpose of this literature review is to inform readers about the effects of parental divorce. As concluded, the three main causes of distress in children due to divorce is parental absence, economic disadvantage, and family conflict (Amato, P. R., & Keith, B., 1991).
Sobolewski, Juliana M., and Paul R. Amato. 2007. "Parents' Discord and Divorce, Parent-Child Relationships and Subjective Well-Being in Early Adulthood: Is Feeling Close to Two Parents Always Better than Feeling Close to One?." Social Forces 85, no. 3: 1105-1124. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 8, 2011).
Afifi, Tamara D., et al. "The Influence Of Divorce And Parents’ Communication Skills On Adolescents’ And Young Adults’ Stress Reactivity And Recovery." Communication Research 42.7 (2015): 1009-1042. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2015. In her article written for parents Tamara, a professor who has received many awards, examined the impact of parents’ marital status on children. Children whose parents were separated or divorced have a harder time with communicating skills in comparison to a child with a healthy family. Tamara who is biased in this topic seeks to inform the public of the link between parents relationships and children. (okay)
Sobolewski, J.M., & Amato, P.R. (2007). Parents’ discord and divorce, parent-child relationships and subjective well-being in early adulthood: is feeing close to two parents always better than feeling close to one? Social Forces, 85(3), 1105-1124.
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.
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.
Divorce effects on adolescents can become issues in their psychosocial development throughout their teen years and beyond. Knowing the outcomes of divorce on adolescents and people in general is important because these outcomes can leave long-term negative effects on the teenager’s future relationships and individual growth. Humans are social creatures, so having positive social skills, emotional bonds, and relationships with other people are huge roles in teens’ lives. Professionals need to know this knowledge so they can do studies on them and spread their results and information to other people who imp...
American Journalist, Helen Rowland said, “ When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn’t a sign that they don’t understand each other, but a sign that they have, at last, begun to” (1). Divorce means the ending of a marriage by legal separation, thus, a couple that were once bonded together have now separated for opposing reasons. Divorce has hurt and destroyed many families across the world and can cause a lot of negativity. Teens often do not know how to deal with the fact that their family is no longer whole and they will transition into a depression. Teens may experience emotional damage by seeing the two most important people in their lives fight constantly. There is a good side and a bad side to seeing parents go through a divorce as a teen. Quite often teens tend to see that, since they are so unhappy, that it is better for them to separate because they do not want to see their parents get hurt. Even when separated, they learn to communicate and bond between one another. The negative side of divorce is that families sometimes stay torn apart, therefore: There is a lot of anger, rage that happens because going through a situation like this is not something that is easy, and many emotions become involved. Dealing with their parents can be difficult for some teens, but for many others, they feel as if a divorce will make their family happier without seeing all of the fighting.
Marital couples are sometimes oblivious to how much their marital conflict effects the lives of their children. Even though there are ways to have a disagreement in an amicable way, many children have a chance to see their parents resolve a conflict in a way that will not have a negative impact on their lives. Many of their conflict deteriorate and escalate into yelling matches, belittling, and sometimes domestic violence. Children who are consistently exposed to this kind of behavior will not be equipped to handle conflict in their own relationships and lives and repeat a pattern that they learned in their household. According to Rafiq and Rafiq (2017) marital conflicts significantly affect the child development, therefore resolution