Research reveals that balanced against the benefits that might derive from the end of a parents’ conflicted marriage, children often pay the price of a significantly reduced standard of living, emotional pain, and the loss of important parenting relationships in the immediate aftermath of divorce. Research also finds that many factors cause unnecessary stressors in children’s lives post-divorce such as the frequency of their parents fights and the damage it creates in between the child and the noncustodial parent. No one will ever really know all of the effects a divorce has on children, but many researchers have found that divorce definitely affects children in all kinds of ways. The Effects of Divorce on Children Although divorce has become a common experience, the effects that divorce has on children is not common. To understand the post-divorce family you must begin with the consequences it has on family, but for many reasons America’s greatest concern is that of the children.
Divorce affects each member of the family which children experience it differently. Parents should sit down with their children and discuss the situation, but not going into detail, that would give mixed feelings towards the parent that is in fault. Even though parents are getting a divorce, they still are the most important people in a child’s life. Children tend to feel lonely, depressed, and rejected because of the situation. Children’s emotions, feelings, and how they cope with depends on how the parents display their coping skills (Lewis, 1999).
Divorce affects children both mentally and physically, and is also based on the child’s age, personality and gender. When a divorce occurs, parents tend to forget about the child and do not realize how much of a negative impact that it has on the child. This paper will provide a detailed description of the emotional and psychological effects of divorce on infants, preschool aged children, school aged children and adolescents. Also, their behavioral development and strategies to help children cope with divorce. Then we will see how divorce affects children spiritually.
Most kids do not want their parents to divorce. A bad marriage can become worse when kids are involved, especially during a divorce. Kids are always the people in the middle watching and listening even from a distance. The children in a bad divorce case are asked to choose a side if not one would be chosen for them. Some kids feel betrayed by their separated parents.
In today’s society, divorce has become a norm in our lives. Married couples today are getting a divorce due to many different reasons, either because of conflicts in the marriage, lost of romantic feelings, a spouse committing an affair, and other type of marriage problems. Most of these divorced couples have children that are very young and due to their age, have no idea on how to deal with an event like a divorce. These children will have to learn to deal with their parent’s divorce at such a young age, affecting them in a positive or negative way. The effects of recent enlargement in divorce rates are negative effects.
A child could also feel as if any adult that approaches then could be harm to them. There are also signs that you can tell when a parent is abusing the child. An example would be if a parent was talking about the child saying he and or she was very bad or "evil". Another reason why a parent would possible physically abuse a child would be because they were abused themselves when they were younger. Second, Neglect: when a child is being neglected he and or she is consistently dirty and smells really horrid.
The effects of divorce on children differ greatly; age, gender and stage of development must be considered as to how divorce might affect children. However, we all can agree divorce will affect them some way or another. Their world, their security and the stability they have known seem to fall apart when parents divorce. No matter what their age, children appear to have some universal worries when divorce occurs. At each stage of development, children have different needs, their cognitive understandings differ and as of such, many researchers studying divorce would consider age of children as an important variable.
The paper therefore examines the overall effects of divorce among children of different age. Zero to Three Years Children during the age of zero to three years face psychological issues when their parents’ divorce. Parents often think that infants are less or never affected by divorce yet the infants still possess the capability of feeling tension that is found in the home despite failing to understand the reasoning leading to the conflict. Once a child is born, the child requires security that mostly results from their primary caretaker that is usually the mother. Keeping the child away from the primary caretaker for periods longer than usual often makes the young child mourn.
In a divorce situation most persons had a changed lifestyle and it can affect mainly young children and person now entering the adolescent stage. Divorce tends to intensify the child's dependence and it tends to accelerate the adolescent's independence; it often stimulates a more relapsing response in the child and a more violent response in the adolescent. For some persons, divorce shakes trust in dependency on parents who now behave in an extremely undependable way. They surgically divide the family unit into two different households between which the child must learn to transit back and forth, for a while creating unfamiliarity, instability, and insecurity, never being able to be with one parent without having to be apart from the other. As the functionalist state, the family is like an organism, containing different parts, each of which must work together for the well-being and equilibrium of the organism.
Romantic Problems – For some people, relationships and romantic entanglements may cause trauma in their life. Some people may thing they are not good enough for anybody because of a boy or girl they had feelings for, or they may also feel rejection. Traumatic Events – Sometimes a sudden death of a really close loved one, abuse, or any other traumatic events may have a real impact on them, making them become depressed or anxious. Separating or Divorcing parents – Divorced or separated parents are very common nowadays, though it affects a lot of children and leaves a mark in their life. Sometimes when parents’ divorce, kids may feel guilty and blame their selves for other things the rest of their lives.