Effects of Divorce on Children

Effects of Divorce on Children of different age groups

Age group 12 to 18

• Periodic violent acting out episodes
• Suicidal ideation
• Acute depression
• Anxiety and fear regarding their self future love and marital relation
• A focus on the moral issues pertaining to the parent's divorce thereby commenting on the actions and decisions of the parents
• Development in the ability to recognize integrity in the post-divorce relation of the parents
• Display of sympathy for the parents without disregard for self requirements

Age group 8 to 11

• Feeling of powerlessness
• Anger
• Feeling of grief due to loss of the former intact family
• Label one parent as bad while the other as good
• Try to care for a parent at the expense of self requirements

Age group 6.5 to 8

• Find it difficult to digest the concept that the divorce is permanent
• Have fantasies that the divorced parents might unite again in the near future as well as replacement fantasies
• Openly express grief regarding the departed parent

Age group 3 to 5

• Considerable yearning for the non custodial parent
• Aggravated fear of separation from the custodial parent
• Sleep disturbances
• Waning of the most recent development in attitude

Common Effects of Divorce on Children

Vulnerability

Children of divorce have a low self esteem and are insecure. They feel that their world is based on shifting sand. Due to such thoughts, they are very vulnerable. They have a desire to enhance their self esteem and this acts as a drive to find approval wherever it can be found. So, they may perform sexual favors for friends or abuse drugs with friends or try to satisfy pedophiles.

Self blame

The children of divorce experience a considerable fear and immense hurt of the things occurring in their world. They fail to view the situation impartially and cannot separate themselves emotionally from the occurrences. Whenever the parents utter the child's name, the child feels that he / she is the cause for divorce. Although an equitable custody plan is ordered by the court, the child develops a feeling that one or both parents are distant for him / her. This aggravates the conclusion that they themselves are the reason that the parent has been lost.

Security

From the moment of conception of a child, the experience of a child regarding the parents becomes the whole sense of the world. The most profound influence on a child is the behavior of the parents towards one another. When the parents are argumentative, selfish, spiteful and immature towards each other, the child develops a feeling of insecurity. When the parents get divorced, the child concludes that there is no loving, secure and stable place in the world.

Disrespect for authority

A divorce implies that the two key authority figures of a child failed to offer a reliable ambience for the child. So, along with a divorce, the child tends to abandon the respect for authority model.

Divorce Papers