The Effect of Divorce on Children Divorce, once uncommon in our society, is now becoming more and more frequent, disrupting our children's state of well-being. Some children of divorced families have long-term behavior problems such as depression, low self-esteem, poor school performance, acting out, and difficulties with intimate relationships. Children with divorced or divorcing parents often have a sense of abandonment, because their parents become too preoccupied with their own psychological, social, and economic distress that they forget about their kids? needs (Lamb and Sternberg, 1997). In 1988, Professor Jeanne Dise-Lewis conducted a survey of 700 middle school students.
Introduction: In the last two decades divorce has increased substantially leaving couples single and families broken. Divorce is the reality for many families as there is an increase in divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families. Divorce cannot be overlooked as it negatively affects and impacts youngsters for the rest of their lives. Although it is the decision between two parents’s children are hurt the most in the process. The concept of divorce is extremely difficult for children to understand as there are many unanswered questions and uncertainties.
Now, I got an opportunity to select a topic to research so I chose divorce. I would like to know what situations children go through after their parents get divorced. I am assuming that divorce might be the hardest thing for some children, especially in childhood life. Divorces are more common than they were generations ago. In a Time/CNN survey released in august 1997 which showed that the largest population of respondents (45%) answered that marriage is not taken seriously by most of the couples because they always end up getting divorced.
The financial aspect of a divorce is also major. “Take a look at what all comes along with divorce: you have the cost of the lawyer, the cost of the divorce itself, if a couple has children then the parent without custody has to pay child support, the couple has to divide their a... ... middle of paper ... ...he/she is growing up and his/her parents argue about how raise one during the adolescent stage of his/her life. With that being said, many kids may have suicidal thoughts when his/her parents get a divorce, because of all the emotional distress and confusion that a divorce causes. Divorce is a very sad process that hurts everyone. So before going into marriage a couple needs to make sure they do a few things.
Study shows that one out of every two marriage end in divorce and most divorces have children involved, so that means more divorces are going to happen and more children are going to go through it with their parents. What needs to be done to prevent the damage divorces have on kids as well as the parents that don’t see the kids as often as their daily life routine is use to. Things that should be done to keep others outside of the situation; outside of the situation because what others say and do have a lot to do with the actions of the parents as well as the wellbeing of the children. The emotions between two people during a divorce most of the time is very intensive. Most divorces end because Young age, little education, low income, premarital cohabitation, premarital childbearing, no religious affiliation, and most important insecurity.
This significant shift in lifestyle can cause many effects on various age groups of people. When a married couple is miserable and unhappy, considering divorce seems like the only answer. Some parents do not consider how much the divorce will affect their lives, along with the lives of their children. When a married couple gets divorced, children in the family have trust issues, teens become rebellious, and the couple themselves often go into severe depression or sadness. Effects on Adults The lives of adults who go through a divorce are changed forever.
Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike. Explaining Divorce "Parents frequently tell me they believe that to explain too much about the end of their marriage to their children it will unduly upset or confuse the children," (Berger 28). After divorcing, parents must learn to answer every question a child may ask honestly and without hesitation. If not, the child will undoubtedly loose faith and trust in their parents. Creating lies will often damage a child who is already going through so many emotions.
The children also suffer because they are now separated from one parent and no longer have both parents in the home. This devastation causes psychiatric trauma to the child’s state of mind. Often enough, the divorce is already a strain on both parents therefore the childre... ... middle of paper ... ...rowing into adults and facing the same issues that their parents’ one struggled with. Works Cited Gallagher, M. (1996) The abolition of marriage How We Destroy Lasting Love. Regnery Publishing Cherlin, A. J.
The children expect all relationship’s to fall apart or have problems. The most asked question from a child of divorced parents is “Am I the reason they got divorced.” Children tend to ask this question so often because they feel that they caused their parents to get divorced. The effect of divorce on children is based on how old they are. If the children's parents get divorced when they are nine or younger then the children will tend to blame themselves for the divorce and think that their parents will eventually get back together. If they are between the ages of nine and thirteen then the children will start to become more dependant and have a feeling of betrayal from their parents for getting divorced.
Not many people know this but every year, an average of over one million children in America are unfortunately suffering from the aftermath of their parents’ divorce and most children born each year will witness a divorce by the age of 18 years old. This subject is a little touchy for me but also very important to go over because it hits home for me. My brother and I are children that witnessed our parents get a divorce. That was probably one of the hardest things we’d ever had to go through and I find this being the perfect opportunity to study and research more on how and why divorce can be so hard on the children it effects. Not only is this sociologically significant to science and people all over but it is also personally significant to me as well.