Why Is Divorce Bad For Children

Reference 1

Author: Hal Arkowitz & Scott O. Lilienfeld

Title: Is Divorce Bad for Children?

Date: Feb 14, 2013

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-divorce-bad-for-children/?page=1 In this article, two psychology professors from Emory University and graduates of the University of Arizona, inform their findings on the short-term and long term effects of divorce on children in Is Divorce Bad for Children? From the tone of the article, it is clear to see that the professors regard divorce as a smaller factor in children’s behavior. From studying observations that ranged from children growing up with divorced parents, how they recovered, and even how long it took to recover from such negative experiences, they have made an adequate

Emery is a professor of psychology and director at the University of Virginia for the Center for Children, Families, and the Law. Within this article, he mentions the negative effects of divorce on both the children and the parents in this article as well as his book The Truth of Children and Divorce. Promoting their well-being as a main concern, as well as the confusion between what actually affects the child. He begins by stating that divorce always stresses the child and usually causes a strain between the child and parent. Secondly, he mentions how children will experience and develop psychological and behavioral problems such as depression. Third and fourthly, despite suffering through their parent’s divorce, most children will recover from the sudden transition, however, many will report that they still remember the trauma and the occasional worries about their own relationships, their parent’s relationships, and divorce in general. In conclusion, there is no escaping the grief of divorce, every child will suffer some sort of psychological or behavioral problem when confronted with their parent’s

She informs that there have been many researches that prove that divorce isn’t the main cause for bad behavior in children. With that, she references a research done by Allen Li, the associate director of the Population Research Center and the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The man briefly says that divorce is neither “good or bad” and that most of the problems in children depend on the individual families and how they were brought up. She interestingly continues with mentioning other authors who have thought that Li’s conclusions are far too strong and that children are affected by divorce. While there may not be strong effects, there are still consequences for those children who suffer through divorce. Finally, she finishes with Andrew Cherlin’s research on children before and after the divorce of their parents then compared that data to kids with married parents. In conclusion, he found that there were problems that arose with the kids who suffered through divorce. The article finishes off with the quote of Cherlin, which says “Most children are not affected in the long-term, but divorce does raise a risk that there will be problems in some