The Effects of Parental Divorce
Divorce occurs when a marriage or union is terminated. It is caused by a legion of factors. The common trigger factors include infidelity, differing philosophies, financial constraints, and domestic violence. These factors contribute to the diminished intimacy and loyalty that characterizes such marriages. Divorce has negative financial, psychosocial, and legal implications. It destabilizes families, and most divorced couples take time to become emotionally stable. This paper discusses the effects of parental divorce on three childhood developmental stages. The developmental stages of interest are early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.
Cases of divorce have been on the rise in recent years. Studies indicate that by the age of eighteen years, approximately two-fifth of children experience parental divorces. This spike has been reported in industrialized countries. An example is an increase in the divorce rate from about 11% to 47% over twelve years in South Korea (Feldman, 2019). Studies indicate that approximately 26% of families in the United States of America are headed by a single parent (Feldman, 2019). This is an increase from approximately 13% reported in the 1970s.
Studies demonstrate secondary problems that emerge from divorce rather than divorce itself affect children negatively. Examples of such secondary problems include diminished parental attention, economic difficulties, and a distorted family life (Mara, 2019). These factors affect children differently depending on their developmental stage. Early childhood refers to the age bracket of between two years and six years (Mara, 2019). This group mainly comprises preschoolers. These children have a better understanding of the environment and can recognize all happenings, unlike infants. At this age, they communicate, form friendship groups, and actively interact frequently.
It should be noted that during early childhood, cognitive capabilities are not fully developed. Children can not comprehend concepts like cause and effect, time, or fantasies (Feldman, 2019). This age group fails to understand the long-term implications of divorce. Such children may have the impression that they are the causality of their parents’ divorce. Studies report that this group is highly predisposed to disturbances in interpersonal relationships and psychosocial problems (Mara, 2019). Furthermore, they are likely to have distorted interactions with their fathers, exhibit truancy, and have adulthood behavioral problems. Therefore, parental divorce negatively affects the psychosocial development of children in the early childhood stage.
Middle childhood refers to the age bracket of between six years to twelve years. They have difficulties coping with life-changing events such as parental divorce. Such children may feel neglected. This is common because, after a divorce, the parent who remains as the custodian begins to work to seek financial freedom (Mara, 2019). This may not have been the case before the divorce happened. Children often interpret this shift of attention as neglect. Furthermore, by middle childhood, children have established emotional connections to their parents. When a divorce happens, they are likely to rebel against their new step-parents (Mara, 2019). This revolves around loyalty issues. They don’t want to sever their connections to their biological parents. Studies report that rebellion is more common against stepfathers than stepmothers.
Schoolwork is affected negatively after a divorce. Children may have difficulties remaining attentive in class. This affects their academic work negatively. Lack of attention is attributed to the existent feeling of neglect, compounded by rebellion against step-parents (Mara, 2019). In addition, children, especially boys are most likely to be withdrawn or become aggressive (Mara, 2019). Boys in this developmental stage have started developing their sense of masculinity and identity with their fathers. The aggression may be linked to the anxiety over being under their mother’s custody (Mara, 2019). Because of their sense of masculinity, these boys dislike being disciplined by the feminine gender. This predisposes them to cases of indiscipline towards their mothers or staff at school.
The adolescence period poses a big challenge to all children. These groups battle with the fact that they are neither children nor adults. Parental divorce has a huge emotional impact on adolescents. This can affect their well-being and hinder a smooth transition to the next developmental stage of adulthood. Divorce can make this age group take the fatherhood or motherhood roles over their siblings (Adler, 2017). In addition, adolescents may need to look after their parents. This happens when they remain with an unemployed or incapacitated parent. This can affect their academic work negatively. They are most likely to be stressed and disinterested in their studies. The need to take care of siblings limits the time allocated for school work.
Social lives are also affected. Adolescents have to cancel scheduled social activities with friends. This is attributed to the need for them to take care of their sibling or help their parent. Studies indicate that parental divorce affects the transition to independence by adolescents (Adler, 2017). Emotional preparedness is required for the transition to be fruitful. It is reported that after divorce, some adolescents detach rapidly from their parents while others delay their departure. Rapid detachment to assume independence is not desirable because it is associated with wrong decision-making (Adler, 2017). Parents are instrumental in guiding their adolescents and giving them life’s pros and cons. A defective family system created by divorce denies adolescents a learning opportunity.
Parental divorce affects the intimate life of adolescents. Adolescents experience difficulty with establishing an intimate relationship and believing that romance is feasible. This is worsened when the parents of adolescents are divorced or in the divorce process. Under such circumstances, adolescents are guided by prejudice. Their parents failed to remain committed and truthful to their marriage or relationship. These adolescents are usually anxious about establishing intimate relationships and attachments (Lee, 2019). This can be attributed to studies that suggest that the effects of divorce can be transmitted from one generation to another.
Piaget’s cognitive development theory identifies stages of development. Children pass through a sequential transformation of thought to achieve a more complex thought process (Hanfstingl et al., 2019). The transformations facilitate a change in perception and comprehension of the universe. A pre-operational to concrete operational transformation occurs during early childhood (Hanfstingl et al., 2019). This promotes logical integration of daily happenings. A shift towards middle childhood and adolescence creates a transformation to formal operational cognitive development.
Piaget’s cognitive development theory is in harmony with the findings on the effects of parental divorce. During early childhood, cognitive capabilities are not fully developed. Children cannot comprehend concepts like cause and effect or fantasies. They are most likely to think that they are the cause of the divorce and be aggravated psychosocially. During middle childhood and adolescence, concrete and formal operational cognitive development set in. The middle childhood group has difficulties coping with life-changing events such as parental divorce. They start to feel rejected and display rebellion against a step-parent. Adolescents start to take care of their siblings and become anxious about establishing intimate relationships and attachments. The findings in the adolescent and middle childhood groups demonstrate cognitive development.
Divorce occurs when a marriage or union is terminated. It is caused by a legion of factors. The common trigger factors include infidelity, differing philosophies, financial constraints, and domestic violence. Divorce has impacted various childhood developmental stages differently. The effects of divorce in these stages can be explained by Piaget’s cognitive development theory. Piaget identifies four cognitive developmental stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational concrete, and formal operational. This transformation represents a shift towards the ability to integrate information and occurrences in a logical format.
References
Adler, N. (2017). Examining Divorce from a Developmental Perspective. 646, 1–13. https://www.familykind.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Examining-Divorce-from-a-Developmental-Perspective.pdf
Hanfstingl, B., Benke, G., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Comparing Variation Theory with Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: More Similarities than Differences? Educational Action Research, 27(4), 511–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2018.1564687
Lee, S. A. (2019). Romantic Relationships in Young Adulthood: Parental Divorce, Parent-child Relationships during Adolescence, and Gender. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(2), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1284-0
Mara, U. T. (2019). The Effects of Divorce on Children. e-Journal of Media & Society. 1–19. https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29476
Feldman, R. S (2019). Essentials of Understanding Psychology 13th Ed. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFYIHiUHtRB0USjZpW74E_aaALOqVb4y/view
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The Effects of Parental Divorce
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