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Divorce and its effect on the family
Cause and effect divorce has on teenagers studies
Divorce and its effect on the family
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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. Handling divorce is so difficult when it comes to teens, and is a process of life. Not all teens have the same reactions that other teens may experience in the different living environments. Seeing that your parents are drawing further apart and are going through many heartache puts teens through a lot of emotion. As the parents divorce, teens may e... ... middle of paper ... ...ying because of how hurt they is are tough. Be supportive and help them through divorce. Works Cited Barkham, Patrick. "Why Divorce Can Be So Difficult For Teenage Children." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 06 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. nage-children>. "Our Family Wizard - Child Custody, Parenting Time." Divorced Parents and Teens -. The Our Family Wizard, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. . Dealing With Divorce. “TeensHealth.” Ed. Michelle New. Nemours, Aug. 2010. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. . Rowland, Helen. BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .
When divorce and the introduction of a blended family are thrown into this already confusing period of development, adolescents tend to express anger, embarrassment and even disgust at the prospect of unwelcome change and a new family structure. Adolescents tend to be more self-absorbed in their reactions and attitudes toward divorce and remarriage because a blended family not only alters their original family model but it also often brings change regarding living arrangements, school, relationships with friends and romantic interests, work and future college plans (Temlock, p. 163.) In adolescence, teens are pushing away from their biological parents and turning to their peers for support; the concept of introducing an unfamiliar (and often unwanted) step parent into their lives often seems impossible to comprehend and adjust
All over the world, parents decide to divorce and this leaves children hurt and confused. The children may lose contact with one parent or they might decide to makes some bad decisions in their life due to the feeling of neglect. Some of the bad choices could be mental health disorders and struggling in academics. There are impacts on teens that could be short term but there are also long term effects too, because most of them look up to their parents as role models. (decent statement of theme) Family clearly impacts teenagers, especially a divorce.
Divorce connects with the family stress theory where as stress plays a major role in the separation between the spouses and the relationships between the children. Individuals who go through a divorce can be very stressed out because it is known that divorce is one of the most stressful situations a family can go through where they have to worry and stress over a lot of stuff (Smith, 2009). When going through divorce families lose their spouses, parents, and confidante within their selves, as they are often the primary caregivers of their children. When going through the process of a divorce the family goes through a time where they have severe and mixed emotions which are made more difficult by the stresses and worries of legal and financial problems and also custody battles (Smith, 2009). Divorce has a major negative effect on the parents as well as they have to support and counsel their children who may be involved in the process and are suffering too. Families who are going through a divorce or a parental divorce if it is the spouses or the children are going to experience series of emotional stages due to the post-breakdown (Smith, 2009). Stress from divorce can lead from anger and depression to fear and frustration. Also, families who are coping and managing all the tasks associated with divorce can also lead to anxiety, panic, and depression. The spouses who are straightly involved in the divorce experience different ranges of emotions as they being adults direct the daily tasks and responsibilities of living under the circumstances of a divorce (Smith, 2009). Due to the divorce the required rearrangement of the family especially if children are involved will affect every aspect of the daily...
With the increase of divorce and the number of children being born out of wedlock, parental alienation continues to grow. With custody laws changing, allowing for equal opportunities for both parents to raise their children, and fathers beginning to fight for their right to be involved, not just every other weekend fathers, custody battles have become increasingly fierce. Another factor contributing to this is the fact that many courts consider who will be more willing to encourage the child to have a heathly and continuing relationship with the other parent.
Everyone goes through a divorce differently, but there is no doubt that divorce is hard for everyone involved. The people who suffer the most are always the children. They are the future and they need to reach their full potential. By making good decisions, we can raise them to far exceed their full potential. By being educated on divorce we make better decisions about marital problems. Hopefully people will think twice about the future effects for them and their family before they ask for a divorce. Remember, a divorce affects everyone involved, and those affects are almost always negative.
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.
The majority of divorcing parents cannot resolve custody disputes because they fail to resolve interpersonal conflicts (Burke, McIntosh & Gridley, 2009; Amato, 2000; Cawood, 2010). In fact, the divorce process has a series of partially predictable events and emotions exhibited over some time (Emery, 2014). As a result, family-related disputes are best resolved through mediation before resorting to litigation (SALRC, 2016; Barsky, 2016).
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+)..
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 California State Legislature changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing cause (Child Study Center, 2001).
Divorce should be harder to obtain due to the effect that it has on children the main effect it has on the children is depression. “ In the short term divorce is always troublesome for children Mavis Hetherington videotaped and scrutinized the workings of 1400 divorced families since the early 1970’s. Hetherington pinpoints a crisis period of about two years in the immediate aftermath of separation when the adults, preoccupied with their own lives, typically takes their eye off parenting just when their children are reeling from loss and feeling bewildered” (Hethrington 2). This article states that the short term effect of divorce affects the kid deep because they feel that they lost one forever and in those 1400 many of the kids felt the effect of the divorce. “Wallerstein has told us that divorce abruptly ends kids’ childhood, filling it with loneliness and worry about their parents, and hurting them prematurely and recklessly into adolescence. (Wallerstein 2).” This later affects the kids life because they try to think of happy memories they had but really all they can think about is the parent that they loss due to the divorce. “Contrary to the popular perceptions, the alternative to most divorces is not life in a war zone. Though more than 50 percent of all marriages currently end in divorce, experts tell us that only about 15 percent of all unions involve high levels of conflict. In the vast number of divorces, then, there is no gross strife or violence that could warp a youngster’s childhood. The majority of marital break-ups are driven by a quest for greener grass—and in these cases the children will almost always be worse off. (Zinsmeister 2)” this proves to me that when people get a divorce they most of the time don’t ...
"Guidelines for Child Custody Evaluations in Family Law Proceedings." American Psychologist. 65 ed. 2010. APA.org. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
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.
Adolescence is known as a challenging time with the everyday stressors that the adolescent is forced to face. When an adolescent has to experience a parental divorce, it often has detrimental effects on their health and wellbeing. With divorce becoming more and more common within families, the effect that it has on adolescents is often more intense than realised by parents. It is becoming increasingly important to investigate this matter as approximately 50% of parental divorces involve children under the age of 18. (Schroeder, Osgood & Oghia, 2010). These adolescents are placed at a considerable overall disadvantage compared to adolescents whose parents have remained together. This essay will give a detailed explanation of the effects of divorce on adolescent achievement, substance use and psychological well-being. The role of parental conflict, economic hardship and living situations will also be investigated in order to explore the various risk and protective factors that may have and influence on the adolescent’s welfare during and subsequent to parental divorce.
Research has proven there is a link between childhood depression and parents who are divorced. When children’s parents decide to get a divorce, it increases the risk of the children going through a deep depression period. There are several different reasons that have been linked to why children become depressed after their parents get a divorce. Parents and children usually become very distant after a divorce because they are both trying to overcome a hard time in their lives, so they keep to themselves instead of talking to each other. When children realize the distant that has come between them and their parents, they become upset, and that is what leads to the depressed state. Children are also trying to understand and deal with the new way of life they are living with only one parent in the househo...
Divorce isn’t always as bad as people portray it. Commonly realized, divorce isn’t a great thing to happen to a family. But being in a bad relationship can have more negative effects on a child than divorce. In a study conducted of 98 couples, that later divorced, 80% of their children felt that their parents split was a good decision. Of the 20% that felt it wasn’t a good decision, most came from more abusive families. Being together in a bad relationship can actually cause more harm than good. Parents commonly think that by staying together for the kid’s sake will it eliminate negative effects and help their kids thrive. Nevertheless they see their parents unhappiness creating a more tense environment. Provided that the parents are abusive or are more vocal about their opinions then it can actually create a traumatic environment around the child, making them feel unsafe or timid constantly. What the minority of people know is that divorce can actually give kids positive vibes. Divorce can teach kids to focus on the positives and keep moving forward in life. In a Harper Collins book it says (We’re still family: What grown Children have to say about their parents divorce) that “ kids more commonly emerge wiser in spite of- or perhaps because of- their complex histories.” Multiple studies have proven, kids who have experienced divorce emerge mo...