Parents divorcing can be very distressing for children and can make them feel angry, sad, powerless and abandoned. Parents arguing a lot at home is also negative for a child and will cause them mental and emotional difficulties and is particularly associated with children having low self-esteem, this being a significant factor in reduced educational detainment and social relationship issues. Having a family member who is misusing alcohol also contributes to children’s mental and emotional health as they have a higher risk of developing mental issues. How intellectual a child is deemed to be also effects emotional and mental health. Society rewards educational achievement so success or failure contributes to how children value or devalue themselves.
Family can have a big effect on a child’s development for example if the child is an only child he / she will not know how to socialise with other children. If the child has a parent who has a long term illness then he / she is likely to spend a lot of time alone, so he / she would be withdrawn and `hang back` from many activities, also this child probably would spend most of his / her time indoors and their physical development might be delayed. If the child is abused or neglected he / she might be afraid of adults or children that are loud and this could affect all areas of development as the child would not be able to concentrate. Poverty can affect children`s development as children who are in poverty, would get less opportunities, as their family will not be able to afford to buy books, pens, puzzles and sports equipment. Also if the family cannot afford to buy enough food, the child might have trouble concentrating and absorbing information.
Therefore, aggressive behaviour with other children would be expected, because the child’s parents have failed to form a stable mother-child relationship in his home environment. Infants, like Calum and his sister, who are malnourished may also experience a condition known as ‘non-organic failure to thrive’. This refers to the child’s weight, height and development falling significantly below age-appropriate ranges, without apparent organic cause. Even with treatment, the long-term consequences can include continued growth problems, retardation and socio-emotional deficits (Wallace, 1996). All these factors will have combined to make Calum that which he has become.
Today, in our society, the act of divorce has become a common custom in the lives of many families. Many married couples decide to divorce for many reasons. Either because of an affair that took place, a struggle in the marriage, loss of romantic feelings, and many other problems. A lot of these failed marriages have children that are adolescents and because of their young age, they have confusing views of knowing how to deal with or handle being in the middle of a divorce. Because they have to deal with these issues at such a young age, many children suffer from the effects of their divorced parents, whether it is a positive or negative effect.
In a controversial study of divorced families, Blakeslee & Wallerstein (1989) state that most children have the same initial feelings. "When their family breaks up, children feel vulnerable, for they fear that their lifeline is in danger of being cut". Early on, children develop a sense of how relationships are formed and how they are maintained by watching their parents. Sometimes divorce can have a positive affect on a child if what they are observing from their parents is fighting and abuse while they are together. As a result of their parents divorcing, most people have a stronger desire to fix what their own parents could not in their own adult lives.
In toddlers, older children, and adolescents some of the signs and symptoms may include; withdrawing from others, avoiding or dismissing comforting comments or gestures, aggressive behaviors toward peers, watching others closely but not engaging in social interaction, not wanting to ask for support or assistance, obvious or consistent awkwardness or discomfort, masking feelings of anger or distress and in adolescents alcohol or drug abuse. Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder may develop inhibited or disinhibited behavior patterns as they grow older some children actually may have symptoms of just one type of behavior while many exhibit symptoms of both. Children who develop symptoms of the inhibited behavior tend to shun relationships and attachment to virtually everyone. This seems to happen when a baby has never had a chance to bond or form any type of attachment to any caregiver. Children exhibiting symptoms of the
When the most important source; family betrayed them and cannot be trusted anymore, the child often feels that it is not possible to trust anyone in this world. They will end up being cautious with everyone they know in order to protect themselves from being abused again. The abused victim not always comfortable with people being close to them because of the bad experience they had been through had taught them that the loved ones cannot be trusted. Some of the victims may have the doubt and insecurity which makes them being a suspicious person over everything that they witnessed. Having a trust
Children who are being neglected are at risk of having accidents through being left unsupervised either at home or out playing. They are also vulnerable to attack from strangers. Neglect is not a once of incident, it is a constant repeat of an incident. Emotional abuse when a child’s need for affection, approval, consistency and security are not met. Emotional abuse is normally to be found in the relationship between a caregiver and a child.
When parents divorce, children show changes in their emotions and their behaviors. When people think of divorce the last thing they think of is the children, but children usually suffer the most from a divorce. Their change behaviors start to become negative and their emotions are drastically different. The changes that the children are negative ones, that cause a great amount of stress. Kids grades begin to drop, they become more violent and are less trusting of people.
Because of this, the child may or may not develop certain behaviors accepted in the society. In certain cases, the child feels isolated and even considers himself as a burden to the adoptive parents. The aptitude to trust and develop reciprocal rapport affected the security, emotional health, and the child’s safety, as well as the development of the child and future inter-personal relationships. Nevertheless, there are wide systems of attachment difficulties resulting from varying levels of emotional disturbances a child experiences. Attachment disorder experienced in adopted children as a brain injury occurs in the early days or years