The Result of Analysis of Divorced Family

Many children have a rough childhood, and most can’t do anything about it. Possibility’s being divorce, abuse, poverty, and many more. Many of these real-life factors play a key in the child life and will shape them into the adults they will soon become and cannot just affect their children but many generations to come soon after. I am going to be showing the effects of divorce on a child and what outcomes result from them, and if there’s any difference between age, gender, race, parenting, types of divorce, and if they corollate to any mental disorders found in young children.

Many family’s going through divorce will have a tough time getting back to their normal routines with the many obstacles with the divorce, such as fathers or mothers having to move, obtaining less income, and providing for the child. Authors Paul R. Amato and Jacob Cheadle bring up “Intergenerational Consequences of Divorce”, stating that divorce doesn’t just affect one generation but affects those to follow, “Compared with offspring with two continuously married parents, offspring with divorced parents are more likely to drop out of high school, less likely to attend college, more likely to be unemployed, and more likely to experience economic hardships as adults ( Amato & Keith, 1991; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994) .” This negatively affecting generations to follow with a more possible outcomes such as not having a well-paying job, less likely to have a bond with child, and will probably lead to the child having problems with their own marriage resulting in a divorce. This affecting their child’s future and possibly leading to the recurring cycle. Another important topic that the authors go into is “Parent- child relationships” stating “Longitudinal studies have suggested that marital discord erodes children’s ties with both parents, irrespective of whether the marriage eventually ends in divorce (Amato & Booth, 1996). Many children start to lose the bonds they once held with both parents because on top of their parents not being together any more the child still has to deal with school, probably a new neighborhood, a new home, and maybe a new partner with their parents. This can be the most stressful time for the child making them act out or turn to drugs, many never fully recovering from the trauma of the ordeal. Lastly, I would like to state an important affect that the author expresses in the article stating that children that have gone through their parents separating will have emotional stress and an overall dissatisfaction with their life’s.

Many factors also play into what household and parent the child ends up living with for the most part. These factors playing a key role on how the child’s phycological adjustment after the divorce. Such as custody for example, if the oldest child is a female the father would have a lesser likely hood of attaining custody of the children. But on the other hand, if the oldest is a male the father has a higher chance. This usually being the case so that same gender child gets the opportunity to learn from the parent. The authors of the article “Parent–child gender matching and child psychological adjustment after divorce”, researched and ran a test to actually see if this gender matching is beneficial and what affects it produces. The test involved 69 parents including thirty-six mothers and thirty-three fathers, and the children used were thirty-four females and thirty-five, males. The researchers focused on the child’s behavior, how much time the child spent with the parent matched and only asked the oldest child questions. The test concluded that children that stayed or had custody with the same gender parent had better phycological adjustment after the divorce of their parents stating that “Likewise, Kelly (1993) concluded that mother-custody girls and father-custody boys had significantly greater social competence, maturity, cooperativeness, and self-esteem than children living with the opposite gender parent.”. This showing that many children thrive with the same sex parent, and cope better with the new living and obstacles they had to adjust to. But the authors also stating that now in current time children are more likely to share more of their emotions through technology rather than face to face with parents. More research has to be done to really analyze if same sex matching is beneficial of the child’s mental health and future.

Another topic of discussion that may result from divorce is ADHD, a behavioral disorder with symptoms including hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity in children. the disorder is found mostly in males then in females. The authors state that “Parental divorce was associated with greater symptom severity, more externalizing/internalizing behaviors, and poorer social functioning, but less with academic underachievement.”, this stating that children suffering from this disorder had a higher severity of ADHD. But the research is slim about the link with the disfunction in family’s and the child’s disorder. The following test to see what correlation between these two variables, the first study included 479 children with only one child per family. Which included children with divorced families, adopted children, and children with non-divorced families. The study showed that “A number of studies have indicated higher rates of divorce and more disruptive interpersonal relationships among family members of children with ADHD (Barkley et al. 1990; Biederman et al. 1991).” Showing that more families that had broken up had children showing more hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity, than children that didn’t. The authors also talk about age differences and those who experienced a divorce in their biological parents. That children in their later teens (sixteen- eighteen) had mild depression and alcohol abuse. Also, children that younger with divorced parents had a harder time adapting to new changes. But the authors state that even after all this information it is still to small to have a conclusive result that ADHD is more severe or caused by families that have gone through a separation of parents. Other factors could also be in play like parents still trying to comprehend the childes disorder, the parent’s little knowledge on the disorder, neglect of the child, and the appetence of the child’s disorder by the parents. The authors talk about how more research needs to be done to have a real connection between these two variables to make it conclusive.

Child adjustment and coping mechanisms aren’t the same between all children many factors relying on what age the child is, at what age the child’s parents separated, the child’s ethnicity, religion, the period in time, and the length before and after the divorce. For example, younger children going through this situation will not compered the whole situation and will in result feel as if the situation is their fault, will feel abandonment, and won’t take outside resources to help cope, while in older children wouldn’t be so hard. But the author states that in remarriage of the parent will result in the opposite. Another factor that can result from divorce is the lack of parenting such as discipline, caring, and time spent with the child, this can negatively affect the child life in many ways just apart from coping with the separation and if escalated can led to neglect. Divorce can also affect the parent mentally as the author states “Marital conflict and divorce increase parents’ depression, anxiety, and stress, which decrease parents’ ability to parent well and may in turn negatively affect children’s adjustment.” The increase in stress for the parent can really affect the family and the future of the child’s health, mental state, and the coping process. Also, parents with past substance abuse, drug addiction, and personality problems are at a greater risk of picking a partner with the same problems, this may lead to further abuse, distancing of the child, and can lead to the taking of the child from that home entirely. The child can also later in life inherit these bad characteristics from their parents. Even though children that’s parents have separated have more problems in school and adjust slower than kids that families didn’t the author states that “However, even though children whose parents divorce have worse adjustment on average than do children whose parents do not divorce, most children whose parents divorce do not have long term negative outcomes.” This shows that every situation is different but children that families divorce can still not have bad outcomes, by many resources offered to families in need of help.

For many of the kids dealing with the separation of their parents, it could feel as if each parent is at war with each other. One parent not allowing the other any time with the child or talking bad about other parent to the child. This in return could affect the child’s mental health. This next author talks about the many ways children and parents can help improve living at home. Such practices include Alternative Dispute Resolution, therapy, Collaborative Divorce, Co-parent Counseling, and Reconciliation Therapist if the family is really on bad terms. Many practices are set so that children and parents can get help. Many parents might not want to seek out therapy because of the high cost. This might not be the case for wealthy families, but the author stating “These agencies can then offer coparenting and other ADR services at a greatly reduced rate using external funding to help underwrite the costs” the only problem with this method being the short time per visit due to the low cost and might not get the full experience out of it. But just seeking help is better than not trying at all. Families struggling with a wrecked family should still seek help.

Children going through a divorce can be greatly affected. Even not being able to keep their own family intact later on in life. Parents at war with each other can led to multiple scenarios with neglectful and just outright bad parents and can destroy their child’s mental and physical health. For many in this situation help is always there to bring a family back up and make it healthy again, not just for the child but for the parents as well. This will stop teens from having illness and addictions such as depression and drug abuse. While also stopping children from developing into troubling adolescents. Hopefully more research is conducted with multiple races, ages, and types of divorce, so that more conclusive evidence can be surfaced and debunk multiple stigmas around divorce.