Running head: THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN 2

The Harmful Effects of Divorce on Children

The Phuc Dinh (Mike)

Clark College
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The Harmful Effects of Divorce on Children

Divorce is a painful process that disturb family life so much. It gives many bad effects on

family members. According to National Center for Health Statistics, the divorce rate in the U.S. is

2.9 per 1,000 population as of 2017. The latest data from Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that there is one divorce in America every thirteen seconds. Even

though divorce rate decreased in recent years, researchers estimate still about 41 percent of all first

marriages end in divorce, and the United States has the 6th highest divorce rate in the world. After

separation, the couple usually experience bad effects such as decreasing levels of happiness,

changing in economic status, and having emotional problems. But more importantly, marital

disruption gives a big concern on their children mostly because they are too young. This paper will

focus on how marital disruptions potentially affect children including academic, behavioral, and

psychological problems.

While the parents potentially have a short-term effect by their separation to recover their

balance, those harmful effects can happen on their children for long-term (Lee & Bax, 2000). Lee

and Bax point out that the majority of parents regain their equilibrium much faster than their

children. They can re-establish distant communication with their ex-partner and adapt to the new

living arrangements within two years of a separation. On the other hand, most children report

painful feelings about their parents’ divorce, and some children suffer extended and prolonged

symptomatology related to parental divorce including both internalizing and externalizing

problem. Looking into an earlier research in 1993, the long-term effects on children of divorce

were studied by (Zill, Morrison, & Coiro, 1993). These researchers conclude that "effects of

marital discord and family disruption are visible twelve to twenty-two years later in poor
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relationships with parents, high levels of problem behavior, and an increased likelihood of

dropping out of high school and receiving psychological help." Based on these studies, it is very

clear that parent’s divorce potentially gives serious and long-term effects on children.

First of all, family disruption strongly affects school achievement of children. Children in

disrupted families are about twice times higher than those in intact families on dropping out of

high school; among children who do drop out, those from separated families are less likely to get

a diploma or a GED (Zill, Morrison, & Coiro, 1993). According to a study by the National

Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), 33 percent of two-parent elementary

school students are high achievers, as compared with 17 percent of single-parent students. The

scholars claim that even after controlling for race, income, and religion, there are substantial

differences in educational achievement between children who grew up in intact families and

children who did not. The children in single-parent families are also more likely to be truant or

late or to have disciplinary action taken against them (Zill, Morrison, & Coiro, 1993).

Different genders give different effects on school achievement. Boys are at greater risk for

dropping out than girls, and are also more likely to exhibit aggressive, acting-out behaviors.

Researchers points out that preschool girls recover from marital disruption more quickly, whereas

boys continue to exhibit emotional distress, behavior problems, and lower cognitive performance

(Zill, Morrison, & Coiro.1993). In a comprehensive review of 27 studies of the effects of divorce

on children's social and emotional well-being, Zaslow (1988) found that boys were more

negatively affected than girls in 16 studies while girls were worse off in only 5 studies.

The impact on school achievement of children also can be different depending on the

children age at divorce. To identify how the timing of parental divorce impact the youth's
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adjustment, Zill, Morrison, and Coiro use Multiple Classification Analysis method (MCA) to

examine and analyze the effects of divorce on these outcomes. MCA is a method of multiple

regression analysis that uses dummy coding to represent categorical variables. It adjusts the mean

of each group for the main effects of the other variables in the analysis. Standardized regression

coefficients showing the adjusted effects of marital disruption on the dependent variables are

presented. Some information about their study can be listed shortly as below.

The sample of the study was 240 young people from the National Survey of Children

(NSC) whose parents separated or divorced before the youths were 16 years of age and about

whom there are data from middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The researchers

divided the sample group into a three-category variable: parents divorced before the child was 6

years old, parents divorced when child was aged 6 to 16 years, or parents did not divorce. The

result came out with higher proportions of youths exhibiting problems were observed in the early

compared with the later disrupted families. The early disrupted group showed more high school

dropout, more behavior problems in adolescence and adulthood, and more receipt of psychological

help than the later disrupted group (Zill, Morrison, & Coiro.1993). The reason can be explained

as the limited cognitive abilities of preschool children leave them more vulnerable to the effects

of parental conflict and family disruption in as much as they are less able than older children to

understand the situation. Younger children are also more dependent on their parents and less able

to use school activities or peer relationships as an escape from parental conflict. Previous

researches with the National Survey of Children (NSC) also consistently showed that youngsters

whose parents’ divorce before the children are 6 or 7 years of age are more likely to display

behavior and achievement problems in middle childhood and early adolescence than those whose

parents’ divorce after the children have started primary school (Allison & Furstenberg, 1989).
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Not only having academic effects, the separation of parents also causes many behavioral

and psychological problems for children. Kids are likely to experience distress, anger, anxiety, and

disbelief when they deal with their parent’s divorce. While many of them have ability to bounce

back, others never really seem to go back to normal. These children may still experience behavioral

and psychological problems after their parents’ divorce for quite long time. According to

researchers, roughly 20% to 25% of children post-divorce have severe problems (Rappaport,

2013). There are some concerns that children often struggle such as why they must go between

two homes, worrying that if their parents can stop loving one another or stop loving them someday,

worrying that the divorce is their fault, or assuming they did something wrong (Amy Morin, 2019).

There are five factors which explain the difference change in children's behavior to their parent’s

divorce. These factors can use to explain why some children have significant issue post-divorce

and others perform better (Rappaport, 2013).

The first factor is the level of conflict between the parents and how often the children's

exposure to the conflict. Research has shown that parental conflict pre-and post-divorce rises the

probability that a child will have post-divorce adjustment difficulties. Exposure to high levels of

parental conflict negatively impacts children's internalized and externalized behaviors such as

shame, lack of social skills, and distress. The higher level of conflict that children witness and

involve in will determine an increased likelihood of post-divorce internalized and externalized

behavioral problems. (Rappaport, 2013).

According to Rappaport, the next factor is the mental health of the parents. Problems in a

mother's mental health have a greater negative impact on children than father's mental health. In

families where fathers are the main caregiver for the children, the result may be in the opposite
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way. The mental health of the parents is one of the main factors that impacts children directly and

indirectly post-divorce.

The involvement of the non-main caregiver is the third factor. In most of the case, non-

main caregiver is the father. The involvement can be defined by the amount of time and how actual

involvement of a parent to their children. The studies show that when fathers are actively engaged

with their children in a positive manner and have sufficient time with them post-divorce, children

are likely to do better. Parenting time is a necessary, but it is not enough. The other requirement is

the active involvement with children. If adequate parenting time is given and fathers are actively

involved in their children's lives in a positive manner, this can reduce some negative effects found

in children post-divorce (Rappaport, 2013).

The financial impact is the fourth factor which Rappaport mentioned in his paper.

According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on September 2018, within nearly 8.3

million poor children, 58.2 percent of them lived in single-parent families. When a divorce

happens, parents separate and normally live in two separate households. The increased cost to

support two separate households give both parents more stressful than pre-divorce. As a result,

they need to spend more time on working and less time on their children. As a result, children have

to stay longer in day care center without parental supervision and involvement. Also, children may

have less chances for activities due to limited family resources to pay for them. Experiencing a big

stress because of parents’ separation and having less supervision and support from them can cause

behavioral and psychological problems for child of divorced parents. Other research from the

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development show that when family income and

maternal education were statistically controlled, children from separated or divorced families
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performed nearly the same as children from intact families at the age of thirty-six months. These

results support the factor that financial situation of their parents strongly impact that children post-

divorce.

Finally, the fifth factor is the children's own perception. Rappaport points out many

researches which supports the idea that children who have an easy temperament, are competent,

and have other positive characteristics are more able to adapt to stressful involvements. Children

with better stress management skills and a better temperament are likely to have less difficulty

post-divorce than children with less developed skills. One potential field recently begun to be

studied is genetic influences to understand why some children inherently inclined to better respond

to some circumstances than others (Rappaport, 2013).

Separation and divorce provoke a time of crisis and destabilization for all members in

family especially children. The impacts of divorce on children including academic, behavioral,

and psychological problems and can happen for quite long time through their life. These impacts

are proved by many researches which are discussed above. While some researches indicate that

children have difficulties post-divorce closely relating to some specific factors. When the negative

side of these factors is managed well, children respond better post-divorce. There may be other

potential variables that also impact children post-divorce such as their perception or genetics. Two

different children may appraise their parents' arguing differently, and, as a result, respond to their

parents' behavior differently. Have these knowledges will help us understand children better and

help them overcome the hard time of their life.

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References

Allison, P.D., & Furstenberg, J.F. (1989). How marital dissolution affects children: variations by

age and sex.

Lee, C., & Bax, K.A. (2000). Children's reactions to parental separation and divorce. Pediatrics

& child health, 5 4, 217-8.

National Center for Health Statistics, Marriage and Divorce: Data are for the U.S.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/marriage-divorce.htm

Rappaport, SR. (2013). Deconstructing the Impact of Divorce on Children. Family Law

Quarterly. 2013;47(3):353-377.

Zaslow, M. J. (1988). Sex differences in children' response to parental divorce: I. Research

methodology and post-divorce family forms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58, 355-

378.

Zill, N., Morrison, D.R., & Coiro, M.J. (1993). Long-term effects of parental divorce on parent-

child relationships, adjustment, and achievement in young adulthood. Journal of Family

Psychology, 7, 91-103.