Is Divorce Always Bad for Children?

No matter how old a child is, the divorce of a parent is a highly stressful event. Most children are not prepared for the upcoming split of his/her parents. Studies have shown that less than 10% of children have support from grownups outside the family during the worst part of the divorce. The other 90% of children don’t have anyone.

A divorce can affect a child in many ways. For example, their grades could drop drastically or they can be very unpleasant to be around. Each child is affected differently by divorce depending on their age. Children from ages 3-5 will often lose sleep, they will have a heightened fear of separation form the parent with custody, and there is also a high level of grief in missing the non-custodial parent. From ages 6-8, children will come up with fantasies where their parents get back together. These children often have a hard time understanding the fact that the divorce is permanent and will not change. From ages 8-11, children tend to feel very angry and powerless. There is a strong grief based on losing the family bond that they had before. From ages 12-18, adolescents often respond to divorce with ideas of suicide, depression, and episodes of violent anger. These children also begin to worry about whether or not they will be able to enter into lasting relationships themselves.

So, in my opinion divorce can be bad for children. More than half of children whose parents have been divorced have affects. I was a child of divorce and I was affected, but learned to cope with it. Some children can handle it, but some need psychological help. I hope, someday the divorce rate will go down and fewer children will have affects from divorce.