Divorce and Socioemotional Development in Early Adulthood

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “Divorce” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “Divorce” and its relation with “Socioemotional Development”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “Socioemotional Development” and tries to gauge its effect on “Early or Emerging Adulthood”. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for “Socioemotional Development” and tries to describe the overall effect of “Early Adults” on “Relationship of Early Adults with their Environment”.

Introduction

The article which I have chosen titles “The Effects of Divorce and Resultant Poverty on Socioemotional Development of Emerging Adults” written by Mary Keegan Eamon. It is a global practice that when a couple decides to live together for the rest of their lives, they bound themselves into marriage and builds their own family. The family is a basic unit in a society in which the father is the provider who works to provide his family with basic needs and necessities, and the mother is responsible for raising children and taking care of home. Both of them work hand in hand to raise and rear their children to the best of their capacities. Unfortunately nowadays, this is not always the case. Most of the marriages or relationships end up in separation and in the US, divorce. The phenomenon of divorce especially in developed countries is contributing to the failure of the traditional family system. Aside from divorce or separation, single-parent families can also result from death of a parent, out-or-wedlock birth, court-appointed guardianship, parent works abroad or other factors that leave one adult totally responsible for the rearing of children. Children are left to the care of one parent who is usually the mother rather than the father, with whom the children reside and this phenomenon is consistent across racial and ethnic groups throughout the industrialized world as cited from the US Bureau of the Census (1997). Being unaccompanied in shouldering this big responsibilities of raising-up and supporting children create difficulties and problems most of the time for a single or divorced parent. Because of the event of divorce in early adulthood or emerging adulthood, socioemotional development in many emerging adults can be seriously disturbed and even halted.

Discussion

The common problems emerging adults encounter after being raised by single parent due to divorce are material or monetary problems (The money earned by the parent living with them is insufficient to fulfill their needs and desires), followed by socioemotional problems (they naturally envy a child who has a complete family and as a result they not only miss the other parent, but sometimes develop antagonistic sentiments and feeling towards the parent who lives with them because they think he/she is responsible for the divorce and its consequences on them). Emerging adults due to more sensibilities of their environment they are living in and increased ability to analyze things feel this gap of missing parents more as compared to adolescents, some researchers have argued. Sometimes, due to the socioemotional problems, these ...