EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN

Effects of Divorce on children



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Families:3

Marriage:3

Causes of Divorce4

Effects on Children (negative and positive)5

Sex of the Child6

Infants7

Pre-schoolers7

School Going Children:8

Adolescents:8

Conclusion8

Work cited10

Introduction

This Sociology paper aims to shed some light on the concepts of Families, Marriages, Divorce (causes), and the effect which it has children. Since divorce is a big event in anyone's life, this paper shall the cover, any effects it has on the child; whether it's psychological or physical. In order to understand the findings, following is a brief introduction of the three concepts respectively.

Families:

There have been many definitions of families, which were presented overtime, but the most common belief is that a Family is any unit or household comprising of parents and children, living together with emotional bonding and interdependency, for an indefinite period of time.

“Families include cohabiting groups of some duration composed of persons in intimate relationships based on biology, law, custom or choice and usually economically interdependent.” (Steward, Clarke & Brentano, p.30).

Marriage:

Marriage can be defined as legalizing the mutual consent of a man and woman to live together for the rest of their life as man and wife. This can be due to a mutual understanding between the two people, sexual compatibility and similar life goals. One people have this desire, they can sign a legally binding document which formalizes this undertaking and assigns a set of roles and responsibilities for both. After which they can decide to have children, who shall be the mutual responsibility of both parents.

Divorce:

Divorce occurs when a man and wife are not able to live together in peace and harmony. They desire to separate due to a lack of understanding, lack of undertaking their responsibilities, one partner might not be able to satisfy or any other reason. Once a couple reaches a point of no acceptance towards each other, they file a divorce. Divorce is a legal statement of separation of the two parents, after which they are entitled to live their lives like single bachelors. When they separate usually, one parent holds custody of the child or they both get joint legal custody i.e. sharing' their child. It might mean, have the child spend a specific amount of time in one parent's house each week.

Causes of Divorce

Since it results in the absolute termination of the husband and wife's marriage contract, divorce is usually the last resort, undertaken when nothing else is available. It is when marriage counseling or periodic breaks and any other effort to salvage the marriage yields no result. Since it has a huge plethora of after effects on the parents, children and even the people around the family it's not taken very lightly.

Divorce can be filed due to a variety of reasons. First and foremost of them is a lack of mutual understanding between the husband and wife. This is the most common reason for which a divorce is filed. The husband and wife thought they could live with their differences before marriage or resolve them, but turns out they can't, maybe due to differences ...