Term Paper on "Does the Divorce of Parents Harm Their Children?"

Term Paper 7 pages (2254 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Divorce on Children

The Harmful Lifetime Effects of Divorce on Children: Emotional, Educational, Financial and Psychological

In the 1960's and 1970's; with the 'Sexual Revolution' having now been made possible by the first-ever widespread use of birth control pills by young women; and with 'No Fault Divorce' having becoming law in the pioneering state of California in 1969, the divorce rate itself began to slowly rise to the historic height it reached at the end of the 20th century (Wallerstein 1989). "In 1950 for every hundred children born, that year, 12 entered a broken family - four were born out of wedlock and eight suffered the divorce of their parents. By the year 2000 that number had risen five fold and for every 100 children born 60 entered a broken family: 33 born out of wedlock and 27 suffering the divorce of their parents (Fagan May 13, 2004). Clearly then, divorce does harm children, in ways that are not commonly realized but that also arguably take a severe toll on our entire, increasingly divorce-prone society.

According to Johnson (March 30, 1979), American "No-fault" divorce, the catalyst for the escalating American divorce rate from the 1960's on, which is common in all states today, started in California. In 1969 California passed the Family Act thereby making it possible for the first time for couples to become divorced based on the broad general reason of "irreconcilable differences," and therefore with no fault assigned to either party.

At around this time it also became increasingly common for divorcing parents (and society) to believe (or wish to believe - in the absence of any body of empirical research to the contrary, as there is now) that divorce did not harm children, and divorce actually made all family members happier because there would then be less family conflict. Wallerstein (2000) however, argues convincingly to the contrary, illustrating convincingly within her study the Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25-Year Landmark Study that on the whole the children of 1960's and 1970's divorces (her study subjects) have suffered harmful effects of their parents' divorces that have followed them on into adulthood and that interfere significantly with their lives as adults, especially their adult intimate relationships.

But back in the 1960's and 1970's, the conventional wisdom of the day held that divorce did not in fact harm children and even that families were better off generally after a divorce of unhappily married parents. (Gest, November 18, 1983; Wallerstein 2000). But since then, research, including one 25-year stuffy of the aftereffects of divorce on children, on into and including their adult lives, tells a different story: that divorce really does harm children for the most part: emotionally; educationally; financially [divorce, especially with a single working mother as custodial parent; and the breaking of one household into two and all of the costs of that, is generally accompanied by a decline in financial resources within the now single-parent household] and even physically.

Fagan (May 14, 2004) argues: "... marriage is the foundation of the family. However, this foundation is growing weaker, with fewer adults entering into marriage, more adults leaving it in divorce, and more and more adults eschewing it altogether for single parenthood or cohabitation.

A marriage is the best environment in which to raise healthy, happy children who can achieve their potential and that the family is the most important institution for social well-being" (the social scientific data on the impact of marriage and divorce on children). Among the harmful effects of divorce on children, as identified by Fagan & Wallerstein (2007) are that children of divorce, and especially those children who have also witnessed verbal and/or physical abuse of one parent by another are themselves "increasingly the victims of abuse." Further, such children of 'high conflict' parents tend to exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in crime and drug abuse, and have higher rates of suicide.

Children of divorced parents perform more poorly in reading, spelling, and math. They also are more likely to repeat a grade and to have higher drop-out rates and lower rates of college graduation. Families with children that were not poor before the divorce see their income drop as much as 50%.

Almost 50% of the parents with children that are going through a divorce move into poverty after the divorce. (Gilman et. al, May 2003)

In addition, Wallerstein (2000) further points out that a particular major crisis point that is common in the lives of children of divorced parents may in fact come when these children of divorce, once they are adults themselves, try to form their own adult relationships with potential or actual marriage partners. Wallerstein found that at this time in their lives in particular, children whose parents had divorced when they were young, as compared to children who had been raised within intact families or even by widowed mothers or fathers, tended to fear much more than did the latter that their own marriages would fail, or that they had no role models for how a successful marriage should or might work (the unexpected legacy of divorce: The 25-year landmark study).

And indeed, children of divorce, as Wallerstein also found and as Fagan (May 14, 2004) Fagan & Rector (2007); and Gilman et. Al (May 2003) also concurred, tend statistically to get more divorces themselves than do those raised in either intact or widowed families. Wallerstein further found that children with divorced parents were less likely to have children themselves. Gilman et al. (May 2003) found that the children of divorce most at risk for major depression throughout their lives are those raised within 'high conflict' households where domestic violence is present. However, these authors also concluded that even children of divorced parents not raised in 'high conflict' households were more prone throughout life to major depression than the general population.

The specific effects of divorce on children will vary from family to family; from circumstance to circumstance, and from child to child (Fagan & Rector, 2007). The gender of the child or children also matters, as does age and developmental level of the child or children at the time of divorce (Gilman et. el, May 2003). Although both boys and girls suffer from divorce, boys tend to fare worse (Fagan & Rector, 2007) and boys then raised by single mothers or girls by single fathers fare worse, in either case, than either boys or girls raised by the same sex parent (Wallerstein, 2000).

However, as Gilman et. al (May 2003) also found, children of divorce, especially (but not exclusively) those raised within "high conflict" families in which three factors are present (verbal abuse, physical abuse, and children's witnessing of physical abuse of one parent by another) have a significantly higher risk of developing major depression during their lifetimes than do children raised in intact families. Further: "Family disruption and low socioeconomic status in early childhood increase the long-term risk for major depression. This same group also has a substantially higher lifetime risk for suicide than the general population; and male members of this group are at greater risk of suicide during their lives than are female members of this group (Gilman et. al).

Fagan (May 4, 2004) states that "The children of parents who reject each other suffer: in deep emotional pain, ill health, depression, anxiety, even shortened life span; more drop out of school, less go to college, they earn less income, they develop more addictions to drugs and alcohol, and they engage in increased violence or suffer it within their homes." Among this group in particular, Gilman et al. believed: "Reducing childhood disadvantages may be one avenue for prevention of depression. Identification of modifiable pathways linking aspects of the early childhood environment to adult mental health is needed to mitigate the long-term consequences of childhood disadvantage" (Family disruption in childhood and risk of adult depression).

There are also frequently major negative financial effects caused within divorce and its aftermath: not just among the divorcing and divorced families but within society as a whole. For example, when households split up, two households must now be separately maintained, one by each parent, at considerably greater expense for both, resulting often in less money now being available, especially for the custodial parent who tends to be the mother, to now meet the needs of children. (Wallerstein 2000; Fagan & Rector, 2007). Further, the non-custodial parent's income tends to rise after divorce (usually this is the father); while the income of the custodial parent, generally the mother, tends to decrease following divorce (Wallerstein). The effects of that on children are myriad, and some of them are obvious while others are not (Fagan, May 14, 2004). For example, there may now be less money for children's school and other needs; extracurricular activity expenses; transportation; health care; college savings, and other present and future needs (Wallerstein; Fagan & Rector; Fagan).

Moreover, children of divorce as Fagan observes may now begin to feel psychologically 'pulled'… READ MORE

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