The purpose of this paper is to critique Zinsmeister’s article, and explore its potential flaws and strengths. Summary In this article, Zinsmeister argues that parent’s divorce causes permanent damage to children that affects them the rest of their lives. He claims that divorce “has lasting significance on [children’s] later views of love, families, and life” (Zinsmeister 158). He outlines the ways in which divorce negatively affects children’s schooling, social interactions, mental health and even sexual identity and later marriages. He also claims that an unhappy household due to continued parental conflict causes less damage to children than divorce does, and thus preserving the marriage solely for the sake of the children is the best option.
This may cause difficulties because the child could become neglected. Also the child may be looked after by the state because the parent might be unable to meet the needs of the child so they may be better in care until the parent is able to cope again. Interviewer: Do you think any other reasons? Interviewer: I think maltreatment to the child because if the parent has abused the child then they don't deserve to keep the child and the child would be better off in care and away from their family. Also if we left the child in this situation it could lead to death of the child and it wouldn’t be right so if there is any sign of abuse then we will investigate in the situation.
If at any point they failed, they would see this as a big mistake and give up and have a lack of motivation. It can also be argued that working class children do not get the support of their parents, this is because many of the parents believe that they survived without an education, so believe that there children can do the same. Working class families can also lack in support in terms of if the child fails a particular exam, they would not give them positive feed back on how they could improve they would improve. Whereas, it can be argued that higher class families have more motivation and the parents also give the support to the children that is needed. This would have a positive influence on the child’s education as it would give them hope and not give them an opportunity of giving up.
This supports bowlby’s theory that failure to form attachments has an irreversible effect on emotional development. This research however can be criticised because it lacks external validity. This is due to the fact that it was a longitudinal study, and during the 16 years there would have been participant drop off. This means that there would be less participants and therefore a smaller sample size, so it cannot be generalised. There is also the chance of social desirability as some people are likely to pretend they have a better relationship with their parents/children so they seem like better parents than they think they are.
The perpetrator may have been abused as a child; violence may have become a means of resolving disputes in the family/social network. Family history of violence. The stress of caring for a physically and/or mentally frail adult without adequate support can lead to abusive behavior towards the adult. Other events may have occurred to exacerbate the situation, such as a job loss, moving house, the death of a significant other, or financial problems. Dependency on the vulnerable person for money, shelter or emotional support can arouse resentment, sometimes abuse.
Some of the children remained at the institution while others had left and had to be either adopted or restored to their original families. Restored children were less likely to form attachments but adopted children were attached like normal children. However, both groups of ex institutionalised children had problems with peers. These findings suggest that early privation had a negative effect on the ability to form relationships even when given good emotional care. This supports Bowlby's theory of sensitive period.
They want and need to make more of their own decisions and mistakes — age-appropriately of course. This desire for autonomy, in addition to adolescent hormones and school and social pressures, causes them to react with strong emotions. Rudeness is a rudimentary attempt to gain independence and demonstrates that the teenager feels fairly secure that the parent won’t become overly punitive — not a bad thing. In contrast, in the presence of a cold or neglectful parent, teenagers may not feel so secure. Instead of feeling the need to separate, they might feel defeated in their longing for more togetherness.
Self-harm would make the service providers very mistrustful as the pain imposed on them by themselves is showing as the pain they are facing at some other point with someone else. They sequence of abuse may continue, it is more likely for someone that has been abuse to be an abuser once they grow older so a back ground check on parents and people living in the family home would need to be done to make sure that it is safe and secure for the individual
There are long-term effects and short-term effects of bullying. Long-term effects of bullying could emotionally damage their self-esteem, lack of individual characteristics. Frequently being bullied can lead to the victim feeling that she/he is not capable of doing anything right. Sometime victims starts to believe in the bullies words and saying (verbal abuse). There are some cases where extreme bullying can lead the victim to committee suicide, this is why it is very important to deal with bullying at the early stages of cycle.
This again can have bad consequences for the child, like low self-esteem, bad behavior and sat on the edge, drug addiction. (BP) A small family will also suffer from family-death. No one lives forever, so being an only child will certainly have its disadvantage. Families consisting of 4 siblings can support and be there for each other when losing a family member. If the child were to suffer from a tragic accident, losing both of its parents, the child wouldn’t have siblings to turn to or be with, and today it’s not given that you have your grandparents, since people tend to get children when they have passed their thirties.