Development and behavior

A child affected by divorce at an early age will show effects later in life. Children can be affected socially; they may seem to become defiant in certain aspects. In heavy research, many have seen children become isolated after experiencing their parents' divorce. Children soon decide they should start growing up much quicker than they need to due to the amount of stress they have taken on. They may make premature transitions to adulthood, such as leaving home or parenting their own child early.^[6] It is believed that this type of attitude and action occur due to the children feeling they are the reason why their parents split. Recent authors have argued that a major cost to children comes long after they attempt to form stable marriages themselves. Parental divorce leads a child to have lower trust in future relationships.^[7] Compared with children of always-married parents, children of divorced parents have more positive attitudes towards divorce^[8] and less favorable attitudes towards marriage.^[9]

Mental health

According to some, custody arrangements after a parent's separation or divorce can be beneficial to the child, as long as both parties are willing to cooperate.^[10] According to most, the children of divorced parents have also been reported as more likely to have behavioral problems than children of married parents and are more likely to suffer abuse than children in intact families.^[11] When parental conflict is continuous, it can cause problems for the child and become harmful to them.^[10] This type of conflict causes harm because it can be frightening and cause the child to be torn or stuck in the middle.^[10] As well as making the child have to deal with inconsistent parenting, which can cause each parent to undermine each other.^[10] Because of these conflicts, the parents are not able to meet the child's needs, hurting the child's overall well-being and mental health.^[10]

Physical health

A 2015 article updated and confirmed the findings in a 2002 article in Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. Both articles discuss a variety of health consequences for the children of divorced parents. Studies have claimed that people who have been in divorced families have higher rates of alcoholism and other substance abuse compared to those who have never been divorced. Robert H. Coombs, Professor of Behavioral Sciences at UCLA, reviewed over 130 studies measuring how marital status affects personal well-being. Researchers have also shown that children of divorced or separated parents have higher rates of clinical depression, family disruption, and low socioeconomic status in early childhood, increasing the long-term risk for major depression. Children of divorced or separated parents also seek formal psychiatric care at higher rates, are more likely to die by suicide, acute infectious diseases, digestive illnesses, parasitic diseases, respiratory illnesses, and severe injuries, and have lower life expectancies in men. As well as cancer, strokes, heart problems, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Having divorced parents can also cause an increased risk of arthritis for children later in life and lower levels of the hormone oxytocin in adulthood.

Views on divorce

In contrast to the usual negative views on marriage by children affected by it, Constance Ahrons, in We're Still Family: What Grown Children Have to Say About Their Parents' Divorce,^[12] interviewed 98 divorced families' children for numerous subjects and found a few of the children saying, "I saw some of the things my parents did and know not to do that in my marriage and see the way they treated each other and know not to do that to my spouse and my children. I know [the divorce] has made me more committed to my husband and my children."^[12] In the book For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered, Mavis Hetherington^[13] reports that not all kids fare so badly and that divorce can help children living in high-conflict homes, such as those with domestic violence. A peaceful divorce has less of an impact on children than a contested divorce.^[12]

Contrary to some of the previous research, those with divorced parents were no more likely than those from intact families to regard divorce positively or to see it as an easy way of solving the problem of a failing marriage. Members of both groups felt that divorce should be avoided but that it was also a necessary option when a relationship could not be rescued.^[14] A study by Wolfinger, N. H. (2011), titled "More Evidence for Trends in the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce", attempted to understand the validity of this socially held claim. In essence, the study attempts to find evidence as to whether divorce transmission (or the likeliness of a child of divorce being a higher predictor of personal divorce) is still relevant in today’s climate. Their research uses data from the General Social Survey (GSS) (Davis & Smith, 2007). To randomize the research, an adult was chosen from each home between the ages of 18 and 89. Data was collected between the years 1973 and 1994, and individuals were chosen only if 30 years had passed since they were initially married, which ended up being a sample of 7,226 individuals. Interestingly, the study finds "clear evidence of a decline in divorce transmission." And it "demonstrates that divorced people die younger; it has also been shown that parental divorce decreases life expectancy." (Wolfinger, 2011). These findings also support claims made in the mortality section. However, the study did show that "the divorce cycle is strongest for people who experience multiple family structure transitions in their families of origin" (p. 1). Or rather, recurring parental divorces. To summarize, divorce transmission, according to this study, is in fact generally declining. Where there is exposure to multiple divorces, however, we see an increased rate of transmission.^[15]