Does Divorce Harm Children?

Does Divorce Harm Children?

Psychology 201-Critical Thinking

November 27, 2006

I believe that divorce does harm children both in short term and in long term. Nowadays, over 20 million children in the United States live with only one parent. Divorce is becoming a fix-all and an epidemic in this nation and parents do not think about the pain and suffering it causes their children.

The statistics against divorce are overwhelming. Jonathan Gruber performed a study looking at the long-term effects on children of unilateral divorce-divorce demanded by one spouse on no grounds other than spousal incompatibility. He came up with the facts that these children are less well-educated, with higher chances of dropping out of school-be it college or high school. He also found that they are more likely to marry early, and earlier marriages tend to end in separation. (http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/pd110501f.html) This statistic is also stated in Cosmopolitan magazine, which says that children of divorce are 66% more likely to divorce later on in life (Cosmopolitan, November 2006).

Even short-term harm to children is imminent when parents divorce. Although there are things that parents can do or say to lessen the effects of this harm, children seldom respond to parent's positive messages. Many kids think that the divorce happened because of them, that it is somehow their fault (http://www.divorcenet.com/states/new_jersey/best_interests_of_children_in_divorce).

A study by the Associated Press ascertained that children who grow up in single-parent homes are twice as likely to develop psychiatric illnesses and addictions later on in life as children whose parents are not divorced. They are also twice as likely to kill themselves or attempt suicide, or to develop an alcohol-related disease. Girls are three times more likely to develop drug addictions, while boys are four times more likely to develop the same addictions (http://sfhelp.org/01/research_divorce.htm).