Effects of Divorce on Children

Over the past several years the rate of marriages that end in divorce had been increasing drastically. After a marriage is over kids are impacted in many ways and it’s not always emotional. It’s an impact on kids of all ages are can last short or long term. Many parents go through a bad divorce with the littlest of acknowledgment to their children and how they would feel after. Kids have shown the sign of blaming themselves over the divorce saying it was their fault and that they could’ve done more to prevent it.

Adjusting in areas of social relationships, there are more common behavioral problems which impacts the children. Children have to adjust from living in one house with two parents to splitting their way to two homes. Most commonly the mother has the rights to the child and the father will get visiting rights. This causes strain for such child. Shifting kids from one house to the next that has different customs and rules confuse the kid on what they can and cannot do.

Parents who are split has less communication between the child and can cause behavioral problems with the lack of parenting.

Couples seek divorce for many reasons, many being wanting happiness again and for their child. When going through a divorce the parents tend to not focus on the child and that they are potentially hurting them, from the fighting, yelling, and in the end the split. Kids who have split parents could go to doing harmful stuff like drugs and alcohol, which in the future could lead to death or substance abuse.

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These negative actions could have long-term effects on the child. Children from split homes suffer during school and with grades. They have high levels of not graduation at the right age. Their grades suffer as well. Kids from broken homes are more likely to commit crimes as a juvenile. Because the parents are split income only comes one way and the kids are five times more likely to live in poverty than those with both present parents. Teens will turn to drugs and alcohol and engage in sexual intercourse at a younger age. Children tend to get sicker and recovery time is much slower due to stress and anxiety.

This is an example of a study done on kids who have divorced parents. Phycologist Judith Wallerstein studied a group of kids in broken homes from 1970 to 1990. Interviewing a group of kids that recently got divorced parents for 20 years after the splitting, the hope of the outcome was for the kids to no longer be affected. But even after 25 years of the divorce the now grown up kids still go through the fear of failure, loss, conflict, and change.

In conclusion, kids could be affected in many ways after a tough divorce, and there are always different ways to ease the situation and work it out with them. This can decrease the long-term effects.