Divorce Impact on Children - Term Paper Example

12 percent of families with children under 18 years old are headed by single parents (“Marriage & Divorce”). If to imagine that all children that come from divorced families get traumatized in some way, the situation of modern society may not look hopeful. The most common thing among children from divorced families is depression caused by the traumatic stressful situation.

In most cases, children are supposed to choose between two parents, for instance, with which one parent they prefer to live after parents’ divorce. The decision is very painful for a child because usually parents are equally loved by children and the thought that from now on they will have to spend less time with one of them makes children extremely confused. The decision also causes the thought that the child is supposed to abandon one of the parents, which can forever instill the feeling of betrayal and guilt in a child’s mind.

Another traumatic aspect of divorce effect on children is the probability of making a child feel abandoned and forgotten by one’s parents. While the process of divorce parents are often become overwhelmed with their personal problems and stop paying attention to their children. In this period children go through a tough atmosphere in the family, so they may shrink into themselves and start getting worked up. If the mental condition lasts for a too long period of time, a child gets used to it and this can later transform into several mental diseases of problems in communication.

Psychological researches show that children from divorced families often become troubled ones (Laumann-Billings and Emery 2000). This means that these children not only suffer from a disability to communicate with others but also can become rebellious and have problems with anger, disobedience, and rules violation. Furthermore, such children can experience complications in their relationships with the opposite gender because they may transfer their feeling of alienation, forlornness, and mistrust to parents on other people.

The last but certainly not least effect of divorce is that the relationship between children and either one or both of parents will never be the same as they were before the divorce. However, for some couples, divorce can be the redemption of their lives so that their children also feel relief and the relationships are actually being saved. But in most families divorce leads to the point of no return and in such a situation many children can feel like the things will never be the same and the happiness they felt in their families is not possible to be returned anymore.