Divorce and Its Effects on Children

Introduction

Divorce is the practice of ending a marriage or a marital union. It typically involves canceling or rearranging lawful responsibilities of marriage, hence disbanding the ties of matrimony among the married people under the rule of law of a particular country or state (Mehrabyan, 2020). The separation laws vary significantly across the world, for instance, in some countries, divorce involves the approval of a court or any other authority in a lawful process. This may include property sharing, custody of children, child support, and co-parenting (Mehrabyan, 2020). Therefore, this essay will discuss divorce and its impact on children, including emotional and psychological effects.

Effects of Divorce on Children

Divorce or separation typically becomes a traumatizing moment in a family, with children being the primary victims. The parents not only realize the new ways of relating to each other, but they try to develop different methods of parenting their offspring (Çaksen, 2021). The effects divorce brings to children vary, for instance, few youngsters may react casually and accept the situation, but many will find it traumatizing and unable to cope with the change. Hence, this parting causes emotional and psychological effects on children.

Emotional Effects

Divorce generates emotional disorder in the whole family; the state becomes quite terrifying, unclear, and challenging to the youngsters. Kids habitually find it difficult to comprehend why they should go amid two households. They live in fear, thinking that, because their parents do not love each other, a time may come when they will stop caring about them. The grade school children worry so much that they are the cause of the divorce (Supratman, 2019). They fear that maybe they misbehaved or instead assume they might have wronged their parents.

Moreover, teenagers become bitter about the incidence and the changes it brings about. They become eventually hating and blaming one or both parents for the termination of the marriage and the turmoil in the family. These worries, anger, fear, sadness, and other reactions cause emotional stress (Supratman, 2019). This pressure can be either physical, mental, or behavioral, where the victims may develop chest pains, headaches, depression, and bad eating habits, which causes osteoporosis in their future life (Oren et al., 2019). Emotionally stressed children may feel overwhelmed with everything; they also become alcoholics and start using drugs to ‘relieve emotional stress. They become poor in decision-making, problem-solving and their concentration gradually depreciates.

Psychological Effects

Divorce in a family may also cause psychological harm to children. This happens when the affected feel they are being forced into a life without one or both parents. This will negatively affect the youngster’s life, and they start becoming moody. The incident might drive them to thoughts that if there is no love between the parents, they should also stop loving them (Sorek, 2019). As a result, they develop emotional problems such as insecurity and loneliness. They might also have trust issues and faith concerns, where they are likely to face the same issues in their future married life.

The children become more anxious, nervous, and tense because the environment at home is challenging. This sensation grows in their mind, and it becomes difficult to cope with life, and they begin to lose sensation in everything they do. The psychological effects of separation on kids include depression (Oren et al., 2019). When a child is a teenager or above, they know what life is, and their parents’ divorce affects them tremendously. They are, therefore, likely to develop stress, tension, and anger that later causes depression. Thus, they lose interest in their education and other essential activities, causing their academic performance to drop gradually.

When one experiences all the fighting between parents and witnesses, the concept of family diminishes, one begins to get negatively motivated by everything. They feel lonely and behave ill tempered towards their parents, family members, and friends. It becomes challenging for these children to make friends and socialize, so they avoid interacting with their age group (Yamaguchi et al., 2021). Children going through the divorce process become oversensitive, whereby they get offended easily or troubled by mentioning family, separation, father, and mother.

A child can pass through the most complicated thing after parents’ separation is one or both parents getting into another new marriage. Thus, introducing a stepparent and receiving them as one of the family is difficult to accept. This incidence will cause more harm to the children because they become more stressed, tension and anger engulf them. It is extremely tough for most of the offspring to ignore the trauma they pass through at the beginning of the new setup, and it remains with them for the rest of their lives.

Personal Thoughts on Divorce

I do not encourage divorce because it is an incidence that causes harm to the parents and the children. If it has to happen, then mutually, the two parents should ensure their offspring are not suffering due to their separation. They can attain this by seeking the best way to co-parent. The above can be achieved by showing more love to these children and providing them with all the necessities they require.

Conclusion

Divorce refers to the ending of a marriage and the type of example the parents are setting before their children. This causes both emotional and psychological effects on the offspring. For instance, fear of commitment in their future life, anger, emotional stress, to mention a few. This separation also constantly deteriorates the family and the bond between the kids and parents. It usually leads to negative conflict management approaches reduced social capability.

References

Çaksen, H. (2021). The effects of parental divorce on children. Psychiatric. Web.

Mehrabyan, A. (2020). The Definition of the psychological pressure on children by the parents at the post-divorce stage. European Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 3(3), 34-41. Web.

Oren, D., & Hadomi, E. (2019). Let’s talk divorce – An innovative way of dealing with the long- term effects of divorce through parent-child relationships. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 61(2), 148-167. Web.

Sorek, Y. (2019). Children of divorce evaluate their quality of life: The moderating effect of psychological processes. Children and Youth Services Review, 107, 104533. Web.

Supratman, L. (2019). A Qualitative study of teenagers’ viewpoint in dealing with parents’ divorce in Indonesia. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 61(4), 287-299. Web.

Yamaguchi, R., & Randel, B. (2021). Evaluation of an on-line parenting and divorce course: Effects of parent knowledge and skills among court-mandated parents of divorce. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 62(6), 431-449. Web.