The Effects of Divorce on Children

What does divorce mean for children? Divorce means “the break-up of a family,” negative effects and for some, the biggest loss of a loved one in their lives. As a child of a divorced family and witnessing the effects of my own divorce on my three children has motivated me to study and explore more deeply the psychological, emotional, and social effects and the factors involved. I'd like to briefly share some of my relevant experiences now and throughout my essay when appropriate to relate to the sources.

I was eight years old when my parents divorced after twenty years of marriage. I was too young and innocent to comprehend the meaning of divorce and its effects. However, I felt them in my heart and my mind. Recently, after twenty years of marriage, I was affected again by a real life drama, and the most painful experience in my life has been witnessing the affects and struggles repeated in my children in coping with my own divorce.

Three years ago, the father of my three children, Jacky who was 6, Renato who was 17 and Daisy who was 18 years old, decided to leave to start a new life with another family without taking care of legal and financial responsibilities. Most importantly, he left behind our three beautiful children with feelings of rejection, sadness, behavioural problems, and with negative short-term effects, especially in our youngest daughter, Jacky, and our son Renato. Understanding the psychological, emotional, and social effects of divorce on children and exploring the factors involved is the first step to helping them cope with the process of healing. (Thesis)

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The researches and different sources prove that there are various effects that are noticed in children as a result of divorce which includes psychological, emotional and social effects. These children suffer from a variety of psychological problems like violence, denial, guilt, low self-esteem, and physical problems. In addition, they also suffer from emotional symptoms of sadness, loneliness, fearful of being abandoned, insecurity, and rejection, child will also digress to rebellion, guilt, escapism, withdrawal, stress, depression (Bryant, pp.31). Other studies argue that children suffer from social effects such as having a really difficult time in establishing a relationship in their adolescence.

Impact of divorce on the children

According to the author, the life standard because of the divorce reduces down which affects the social and economic stability of the children (Bryant, pp.34). The absence of a father from the life of children and the lack of support financially and emotionally, negligence, busy routine and lack of coordination damages even more than the psychological and emotional development in the children's lives. How can you answer to youngest children why it is necessary to move from the primary residence to a different neighbourhood, school, and church? I can say that it is not easy because I experienced it being in the same situation, being a child and being a mother. It is hard to explain the reason to a six year old, ...