The Effects of Divorce on Children Essay Example

The effects of divorce can differ depending on many factors, among which the most important are the behavior of parents and the age and gender of children. It is  essential for children to maintain a contact with both of the parents afterwards. The absence or existence of such a contact usually depends on the relations, on their experience and education in the sphere of children’s psychology.

Married and Divorced Parents

Therefore, the assumption of the research paper is that those children, whose parents pay attention to children’s interests more than to those of their own, and stay cooperative regardless their separation, feel less negative impact from the divorce than those, who get a possibility to communicate with only one parent. The school children aged 13 to 18, who could communicate with both of their parents were compared to those, who were sensitized against the non-custodial parent, were interviewed for the following research. The following spheres of life were analyzed: sociability, intimate relations, educational achievements at school, parent-children relations.

According to the statistics more and more families suffer from divorces each year. Regardless the further behavior of the parents and their relations, for children this is loss of the family that they knew. Numerous research findings prove that divorce negatively affects children on both psychological and physiological levels. However, the scholars research the impact of divorce on psychological adjustment of children in majority of cases. Consequently, the psychologists have investigated the influence of divorce on relations with parents, quality of intimate relationships in future, achievements in various spheres, alcohol and drugs abuse etc. and have proved that the impact of divorce can become a long-term psychological trauma for children (e.g. Ahrons, 2007; Amato, 2001; Allison, 1989; Kruk, 2010; Moon, 2011; Mustonen, 2011; Velez et al., 2011). Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the situation from different points of view considering the attitude of the parents and reaction of juveniles  to it. These effects are closely interconnected; that is why both can help to find the way to avoid the possible negative consequences of divorce or at least minimize them.

Paying attention to the change of the children’s reaction depending on their age, it is necessary to emphasize the work of Demo (1988). For his research the children, who participated in the investigation, were divided into groups according to their age: infants, toddlers, 3-5 years old, 6-9 years old, 10-12 years old, 13-18 years old. Consequently, it was proved that the reaction of children on divorce can be different: they can feel sad, guilty, angry, anxious or even physically sick. Their gender and age are the factors, which contribute a lot to their reaction. For instance, the adolescents from 13 to 18 years create a group, where the reaction is usually filled with the feelings of anger, sadness, and anxiety (Demo, 1988). Since the period of adolescence is associated with growing up, formation of morality and experimentation, it is important that the parents are those, who show an example of the adult behavior. The rules and limits set by the family in this period are very important for the teenagers’ behavior and development. Consequently, lack of a parent can for different reasons make these rules unclear or changeable and cause moral or psychological health violations.

Children regard the divorce as a great change, which means the loss of a parent. Consequently, it is important for a child to keep contact with both parents. Gindes in his article proves the idea of both parents’ importance on the example of relocation of parents (Gindes, 1998). Divorce lowers children’s sense of security and stability; two closest people become not equally accessible to a child anymore.  Gindes (1998) states that after the divorce “the foundation of the child’s world is splintered”. Therefore, in his article he proves that for the proper further child’s development, it is necessary to have a strong positive relationship with both parents, who are not hostile, but amicable towards each other. The best possible after-divorce scenario includes regular communication with a non-residential parent and cooperation of mother and father. Gindes (1998) shows that relocation is important in the mobile society and to what the divorced parents should pay attention in case it is needed.

Another example presenting the importance of spending time with a non-custodial parent is provided in the article of Eymann et al (2009). The findings of this research acknowledge that the life of children from intact and divorce families differs and is influenced significantly by the child’s s
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