Divorce has become a common occurrence in contemporary society. In the United States, for example, more than fifty percent of marriages end up in divorce (Huffman 1).
The most worrying aspect of these divorces is the fact that most of the couples who divorce put their children in insurmountable problems that affect their lives adversely.
Regardless of the rare necessity of a divorce in a marriage, couples should ensure that they properly analyze the effects of divorce, especially how the divorce is bound to affect their children. This paper is an in-depth analysis of the negative impact of divorce on children.
In most divorces, the divorce affects the lives of the divorcing couples adversely. Most divorces result in the weakening of the relationship between children and one of their parents.
It may also result in alienation of the parent and children such that the children are willing to see their parent and the parent is willing to take care of them but the post-divorce life of the other parent makes it difficult for this to happen.
For instance, custody battles may result in “split custody or joint custody” (Solinger 1). In the case of split custody, the aforementioned situation inbound to prevail since children will be separated from one of their parents.
Divorces may also make children develop undesirable character traits especially in cases where the children are made to experience challenging situations due to the divorce.
For instance, in a case where parent s divorce and the children go with one parent who is subsequently remarried, children may be mistreated by the new spouse of their parent. This may make the children develop an overly defensive/resistive character (Neuman 39).
Due to the difficulties that children pass through when their parents get divorced, the most sensitive aspects of their lives may be affected.
For instance, the education of the children may be affected due to the stresses they experience when their parents get divorced. As evidenced in the discussion, the social lives of the children may be affected making them develop undesirable characters.
The reason why children get affected when their parents get divorced is because of the desire for every child for his/her parents to be together. In other cases, they are affected because of the problems that arise after the divorce.
For instance, after parents get divorced, they may be subsequently involved in legal battles for the custody of children. “The amount of contact from one parent, often their father will be reduced” (Faulkes 1).
This may affect all aspects of their children’s lives since the children will be involved in some way. Some parents may also try to create enmity between their children and their spouses (Huffman 1). This will also affect the lives of the children negatively.
As has been illustrated in the discussion above, a divorce between couples will most likely affect children negatively. It is only in very rare cases where children may be better off without one of their parents. Even in such scenarios, children miss one or two things about the parent.
One of those cases is a situation in which a divorce is necessitated by one of their parents being abusive in marriage (Meyer 1).
Therefore, if couples have to divorce, it is of the essence for the partners to ensure that they take the effects of the divorce on their children into consideration and plan well to ensure that the divorce has minimal effects on their children.
This will serve to make all parties affected by the divorce comfortable with it, and it may also help the partners in solving their problems. It will also ensure that children are raised well with the support of both parents and the effect of the divorce on them may be mitigated.
Works Cited
Faulkes, Lesley. “The Effects of Divorce on Children”. 2005. Web.
Huffman, John. “The Raw Reality of Divorce”. 1998. Web.
Meyer, Cathy. “Myths Surrounding Children and Divorce”. 2010. Web.
Neuman, Gary. Helping Your Children Cope With Divorce. California. Wadsworth Publishers, 2004. Print.
Solinger, Jayner. “The Negative Effects of Divorce on Children”. 2001. Web.