The Effect of Divorce on Children

A data presented by The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) show that there is a 3.6 divorce rate per 1.000 population in the U.S.

The separation of parents is a 360 degree matter and it’s wrong to say that such huge change has no effect on family members especially to the children. Children might treat it as a big loss which can cause great pain. That is why parents are advised to be calm and civil during the divorce process.

The safety of the children is the primary concern of most parents in divorce, but others are oblivious of the fact that the well-being of their children is at risk.

The parent’s separation could bring confusion to the child. With the lack of consciousness about what’s happening around them, they might even blame themselves for their parent’s parting.

What are the common effects of divorce on children?

Physical Health Problems

Divorce doesn’t only affect the behavior of the child, but the physical health as well. A child could have asthma and develop cancer diseases on certain body parts such as upper aerodigestive tract, esophagus, anus, pancreas, lungs, and cervix. Likewise, divorce can cause increased injury to children because they would prefer physical force to deal with conflicts as a result of an irritability behavior triggered by a divorce experience. This is no joke because a child will endure not only one pain, but two - the emotional and physical pain.

Mental Health Problems

Children from a divorced family are more prone to develop psychological problems than those who come from a two-parent family. They become more insecure, anxious, fearful, depressed, angry, delinquency, and violent. Worse, this can lead to suicidal acts. In some cases, therapists observed that a child who witness the exchange of hatred between parents, develops attention and concentration problems and frequently involved in school troubles. On the other hand, the idea of marriage for children in divorce is not appealing and just a nonsense.

Separation Anxiety

As dependent beings, children of age two years easily establish affection and trust to their parents and they already know the sense of object permanence. So as a result of divorce, they develop separation anxiety or the fear of being apart from home or from other people. Also, keep in mind that separation anxiety is far more different from separation anxiety disorder. Separation anxiety disorder is showing a heightened fear to the point that he/she is afraid of building a relationship with his/her peer group.

A lot of researches show that divorce has different effects on children considering the age because if you compare an infant from an eight year old child, there’s definitely a difference apart from the age of course. An infant doesn’t have any little bit of an idea what are his/her parents are doing or saying, or what will happen in a divorce. On the contrary, an eight year old child already has an idea what will happen to the family if parents will get divorced basing only from what he/she hears from the parents’ discussion or worse shouting.

However, when you look over to the general impact of divorce, it is mostly the same - the change in behavior, the impairment of some abilities and the development of physical and mental problems.

Wise & Donahue, PLC expertly handles divorce lawyer Annapolis MD. Just call 410-280-2023 or visit us at 18 West Street Annapolis, MD 21401.