Divorce and children
Marriage is the legal union between a
man and woman. When couples marry, they vow to stay with their partner’s ‘till
death do us part.’ That vow seems to have little value in today’s society. The
current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. Almost half of the
marriages in the United
States end in divorce. One concern of the
growing epidemic of divorce is the breakup of the family unit, especially the
effect it may have upon the children.
Each child is unique, so the short and long term
functioning of the children after divorce varies widely. Wallerstein
(1989) observed and interviewed parents and children three times in five years,
and reported an estimate of one third of the children come out of divorce
unharmed. Another one third function adequately, but experience difficulties,
and the remaining one third have severe upsets in their developmental process.
However the authors of the "Family in Transition", approach this
finding with caution because the conclusions were made without comparing the
children of two parent families. Nevertheless, they do note there are overall
trends in the functioning of children after divorce. The areas most often
discussed are intellectual performance, juvenile delinquency, aggression, and social
and emotional well-being (Skolnick 349).
