Children and divorce

Essay by nani1612University, Bachelor'sA+, April 2002

download word file, 3 pages 3.2 1 reviews

Downloaded 374 times

Children and divorce

1 " Family is the basis of every society ". Family is the way to have children, and it also provides protection and education for children. Children learn the first and most important things at home. Family gives them values and norms. It gives children the support that they need in their lives. Unfortunately, during the twentieth century family has suffered the most dramatic change, the increase of divorce. 2A fifty percent of all Americans marriages end in divorce. The children are the ones who suffer most of the consequences of this social disease.

The causes of the divorce increase are several, including the economic independence of women, legally divorce is easy to get, and a greater social acceptance of divorce. There is also a wrong concept about marriage. Marriage is not just about companionship and vacations. Marriage

1 ? " Sociology ", J.Macionis, page 64.

2 - " Children and Divorce ", The CQ Researcher, Jan.

19, 2001- page 2.

means sharing and working out everything together. Today couples are not fighting for themselves and they are splitting up at the first sign of trouble. Divorce has become the easiest option.

Meanwhile, the more we learn about divorce and its effects on society, the more we realize the long-term consequences it has on children. 3An estimated forty-five percent of American children will watch their parents split up before they reach the age of eighteen. More and more studies are finding that divorces have a great effect on children that not only will affect them in the present, but in the future as well. 4Judith S. Wallerstein, a California psychologist, realized a long-term study of children of divorce. She found that 10 years after their parents had divorced, only thirty-four percent were depressed, could not concentrate...