The Effects Of Divorce On Children

Today divorce is very common and it affects many families and children around the world. Many kids are deeply affected by this and their parents need to know how to help them get through this tough time. Over the past year there have been over one million children affected by divorce, and more than about 800,000 divorces in the United States alone. (Cohen and Weitzman). The reaction the child is usually involved with the age of the child from infants all the way to adolescents. They all have different responses and are affected in a different way. Many of the children feel as if their world is falling apart but a lot of these feelings are just short term. For many, it is just short term and they will return to how they were before the …show more content…
Boys and girls can be effected in similar ways and in very different ways. Young girls can have symptoms of depression, anger and even some psychological issues for up to a year or more but eventually go away. When daughters of divorced families stay with their mother they tend to form a strong relationship with them and that helps deal with the stress that came with the divorce. About 10 percent of girls can be affected by the divorce in a way that makes them not care about school and their grades are negatively affected by it. On average, most girls do fine in school and later in life. Many girls who live in a divorced family have a change in physical development, many show early onset of menstruation and physical maturation. These young girls aren’t ready for this type of emotional change that comes with these physical developments. Girls are usually expected to be more emotional over the situation while boys are told not to cry or be upset about the divorce. ("How Does Divorce Affect Girls and Boys Differently?"). Boys are affected by divorce by turning to aggressive and out of control and people allow them to work their feeling out this way. Boys tend to start acting out because they don’t know any other way to work through their feelings. (Avery-Stoss ). They are more likely to have academic problems and truancy, they also can suffer from depression because their father left …show more content…
Different reactions to the divorce based on their home life isn’t uncommon, some kids can feel relieved by the divorce because they know that the constant fighting at home will end. Other kids who have no idea that their parents fight and they can be terrified, surprised and just upset because they had no idea it was coming. Divorce is very stressful for the children having to deal with it but it is very stressful on the parents as well they can turn to substance abuse to try and forget about all the stress that is coming with the divorce. If that happens the parent can lack their responsibilities, they should take care of their children and give them love when they need it most. (Arkowitz and Lilenfeld). Some factors that can affect how children react to the divorce is moving away from familiar places like moving away from their old