Children are affected by the divorce more if the parents have custody hearings or move away from each other. The decision to terminate an unhappy marriage through obtaining a divorce is almost never an easy decision. It is usually reached only after other options and alternatives have been carefully considered and then rejected as non-viable
Many research studies have shown that, on average, children of divorce have more behavior problems than children growing up in two-parent families. But the question for social scientists is whether the problems seen in the children of divorced parents were caused by the divorce, or whether something else caused BOTH the divorce and the children's problems. Researchers wonder, in particular, whether some couples have personal characteristics and/or parenting patterns that increase the chance that their children will have behavior problems AND ALSO increase the chance that the couple will be unable to resolve marital issues. If this "something else" causes both divorce and behavior problems, then it is likely that that children would still have had problems even if their parents had somehow managed to remain married. How do we look for that "something else"?
3.3 TRANSITIONS Transitions may affect children and young people’s behaviour and development in different ways. They may become quiet and withdrawn, feel anxious, demonstrate uncharacteristic behaviour and or become attention seeking. Short and long term affects of a break up on children: Most commonly, children of separated couples will experience greater poverty. Their social and emotional development is very likely to be affected, as well as a child’s psychological and physical health. Children of separated couples may also perform worse at school and have poorer future employment prospects.
Overall, being taken out of a stressful household is an easier transition that being a yanked out of a peaceful one. The University of New Hampshire(extension.unh.edu.family/documents.divorce.pdf) found that age and gender play a large role in how each child reacts to having divorced parents. When an infant's parents get divorced it doesn't understand what is going on but feels the low energy level of its parents. The baby will most likely lose its appetite and spit up more. Preschool children often believe that they caused the divorce.
This is more harmful to the child’s wellbeing on many different levels. Children experience the same feelings associated with divorce that adults do, they feel a loss and grief for the parent that is no longer there on a daily basis. The attachment that they had to the parent prior to the divorce has been forever changed. Some research shows that the quality of relationship between parent and child deteriorates and that the effects last until adulthood (Bouchard & Doucet, 2011). More recently laws have begun to change due to the research that shows children benefit from having both parents involved in their parenting.
A study from Enzine Article shows that, “Children with a missing father are two times more likely to drop out of high school or obtain a higher education.” A college education can become problematic for a child without a father for two reasons. While many single parent moms do heroic work parenting their children, the first is the inability of the mother to afford the costs of a college education. In addition, it also common for absent fathers to decline to pay for a child's college or higher education, even if they have been providing the funds for the regular child support. The second reason is more relevant to daughters than to sons. Women tend to lose a sense of security when they lack a father figure at younger ages.
Divorce is tragic on many levels and all too often the impact on children is more then just the shock of their parents living in two different places. Other then “deal breakers” which could have physical or psychological damage to a child, society needs to take another look at why they are getting
But there is a big difference between using physical punishment to discipline and physical abuse. The point of disciplining children is to teach them right from wrong, not to make them live in fear. However, it is impossible to know whether marital strife is a cause of child abuse, or if both the marital strife and the abuse are caused by tendencies in the abuser. Substance abuse can be a major contributing factor to child abuse. One U.S. study found that parents with documented substance abuse, most commonly alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, were much more likely to mistreat their children, and were also much more likely to reject court-ordered services and treatments (Besharov, 1990).
Broken homes contributed to delinquent behavior and the child is more susceptible to antisocial behavior. Blended families are considered to influence delinquent behavior also because the home is not as stable as a home with both biological parents in this situation a many children will be subjected to family breakup at least 2 or 3 times. Many studies have proven that a child that experiences family breakups develop more behavior problems than children with stable families
In this case, child still can have good understanding of various situations and be able to grow with the right vision of the family. The situation is different and more complicated in the families that have gone through the challenges of divorce. Child, whose parents got divorced, goes through significant emotional shock and re-evaluation of the core values and moral principles. In the majority of cases, divorce causes a lot of negative emotions between parents that cannot be hidden from a child and, consequently, it goes deeply into the mind and mentality of a child. Negative aspects and attributes of divorce, such as discussions on the parental control, cruel scenes between parents and negligent attitude towards the child, as proven by the empirical research data, influence future behavioral patterns of this child and create dysfunctional attitude and relationships in his or her own family.