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Broken Family Literature Review

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Recommended: Research effect of divorce on children

More than fifty years of literature provides an amplitude of documented, researched evidence of the effects of divorce and separation on the family: children and parents, grandparents and extended family, community and school, and society at large. Indeed, the family is increasingly the subject of public discourse in Western society with concerns ranging from the changing definition of family itself, to specific issues, such as, demographic trends, employment, gender relationships, human rights, health, low income, education, crime, marital dissolution, and social capital (McKeown & Sweeney, 2001). It would seem reasonable to assume that this array of literature and debate would thoroughly inform policy makers and legislators, but in reality, …show more content…

Research evidence suggests that divorce has a significant impact on children’s well-being both in the short and long term. Immediately following divorce/separation, children often experience a significantly reduced standard of living, emotional pain and the loss of important relationships (Thompson & Amato, 1999). A meta-analysis of 92 studies carried out in the 1980’s (Amato & Keith, 1991) and of a further 67 studies from the 1990’s (Amato, 2001) compared children from divorced families with children from intact families. The children from divorced families had significantly lower scores on a range of outcomes including educational achievement, psychological adjustment, self-concept, behaviour, social competence and long-term health. Children from separated families are more likely to suffer psychological symptoms such as dependency, low self- esteem, anxiety and depression (Di Stefano & Cyr, 2014). Children often experience ineffective or diminished parenting following divorce (Hetherington, 1999). The loss of important relationships, particularly for children of divorce can be an emotionally upsetting consequence, and Braver and O’Connell suggest that two to three years after divorce, 18-25% of children have no contact with their fathers (Braver & O’Connell, 1999). These children not only experience the breakup of their families but also the …show more content…

Kelly (2003) also finds that the majority of children do not continue to have psychological adjustment difficulties. A number of predictive factors for good adjustment to changed family circumstances mitigate the negative impact. Mooney et al. (2009) suggest that supporting maternal mental health, facilitating cooperative parenting between parents, enabling good communication between parents and their children, reducing and managing parental conflict, encouraging good parent-child relationships and adopting strategies to ease financial hardship can all work to lessen the stress of divorce and help family members in the transition process. Amato et al, (2011) cautions that the notion of a “good” divorce with interventions that help maintain strong parent-child relationships are undoubtedly of value but may be insufficient to counter the entire range of problems associated with divorce. He further supports an emerging focus on the number of family structure transitions rather than on divorce as a single event (Amato, 2010). Divorce is a process, not a single event: it is the first step in a series of family transitions (Amato & Sobolewski,

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The article states that a number of books and articles state that for except for situations of domestic violence or abuse, parents in unhappy marriages should attempt to stay together to avoid the negative impact of divorce on their children. But this becomes controversial because almost all the research these articles and books refer to adopts a family structure perspective that simply following children of divorce over time or comparing them with similar samples of children whose parents did not divorce. The researchers from these books and article argue that children who have long-term distress from their parents’ divorce would not being having these problems if only the parents had stayed together. But studies of families in which the parents are unhappy indicate that keeping the family structure intact without regard to the quality of the key family relationships dos not guarantee children’s well-being, and that data from a second comparison group is necessary to support the fact that children wouldn’t have problems if their parents had stayed married (P. Cowan and C. Cowan

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However, the parent’s respective happiness should not be the sole basis for the decision to dissolve the union (Berger). Of all parties involved in a divorce, children have fared the worst. Jennifer Tyree, who received her B.S from the University of Tennessee and her J.D. from The American University, believes the innocence of childhood evaporates the day the parents announce divorce (Tyree). Step-families, a decline in income, a stressed single parent, or a family move are all dramatic adjustments for children.

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In the article, “The Causal Effects of Father Absence”, the authors McLanahan, Tech, and Schneider (2013) explain how many approaches and methods have been used to research how the absence of a father negatively impacts his children. They said how some of the methods and approaches included ‘omitted variable bias’, which cause the research results to be critiqued, but the approaches that were too biased were redesigned and more effective. The authors concluded that the effective approach results were that the absence of father negatively impacts the children social-emotional development, affects the male child more than the female, and has a larger effect when the absence occurs at the child's earlier years. The idea and concentration of fatherlessness and it’s affects on the male offspring is something to be studied and understood; this is essential because in studies, as stated before, male children are faced with more negative affects than that of

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1495 Words | 6 Pages

Studies also show that children who have gone through divorce are more likely to get lower grades and are considered less pleasant to be around by their peers and teens who live in a single parent or blended home are three times more likely to need psychological help within a year. These choices are already made for the children and they have

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However, divorce is threatening the American family. Divorce rates are rising and children are starting to become insecure due to their parents’ split. As a

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Problem Statement With the advancing lifestyles and further developments in personal mobility that defines today’s society, the family still plays a crucial role of contemporary life. Families offer many benefits such as companionship, protection, security, encouragement and other relative social components. The term family has been changed over the past few decades. The total number of households in the United States increased from 63 million in 1970 to 113 million in 2008 (Weeks, 2012). The traditional structure of the family (nuclear family) began branching to other structures especially in the United States follow World War II.

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It additionally examines the effect of marital breakup on children, adults, and society. The author asserts that children from divorced families are two times likely to see their marriages end in divorce. Furthermore, the author says adults from divorced families are much less likely to trust, and constantly feel unsure to engage in romantic relationships which can lead to problems of not getting married in the future. Jacquet, Susan E., and Catherine A. Surra.

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Introduction In this case study, it analyse how the concept of family has changed in the past 20 years as it will be depicting modern family forms and past norms. It is important to look at how families have developed throughout the years up until the 21st century as we compare the two and elaborate on the difference and what makes it so significant. In this case study, it contrast and compare the television series Modern family which is a 21st century concept of family and The Simpsons which was adapted 27 years ago and how things have changed with family dynamics and what is the norm now which was not the norm years ago.

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With divorce comes many negative reactions and coping mechanisms. Famous psychologist John Bowbly, who introduced the Theory of Attachment between parental figures and children when born, attributed two main emotions that come as a package when divorce is present: anger and hostility. Negative emotions are directly linked to how the adults in the situation handle the divorce. It is stated that if parental figures show anger and hostility before, after, and even during the divorce, the children involved will learn from their behavior and replicate it as a “normal model”. This is what Bandura called “The Social Learning Theory”.

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American Families Today The American family has undergone many changes since the 1900’s. More so, in the past 40 years, the nuclear family seen dramatic changes and has been described as deteriorating. There has been a dramatic rise in divorce, single parent households and child poverty. Studies have shown that children growing up in poverty-stricken single parent households are more likely to be affected well into adulthood. While this is the case, people are also living longer, and families are accommodating this change by living with relatives allowing for more bonding time then in previous generations.

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Chapter 4 How Divorce Effects the Child, Family In this book, our purpose is to make the world a most habitable place for the children- the future leaders of this world. We must be able to temper heated emotion with a not so heated temper. We must be able to walk away from volatile situations to prevent crisis. Divorce on children is absolutely dreadful.

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The adverse effects of separation are due to a range of causes and not just maternal deprivation; any linguistic and intellectual debilitation is most likely to be due to a lack of linguistic and environmental stimulation rather than a breakdown of the mother-infant relationship; and Hetherington (1982) suggests that the mother-infant relationship is not unique based on the fact that children who experienced divorce and lived with the parent they had a particularly good relationship with (regardless of gender) were protected from the worst effects of marriage breakdown. It is clear that society has evolved to create more likelihood of separation between mother and infant in many ways – mothers give birth in hospitals especially in western society, this can lead

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1412 Words | 6 Pages

Marriage is an important institution in a society and although there have been changes in the trend of marriage pattern, it is still very clear that marriage still matters. Marriage exists and its main aim is to bring two people together to form a union, where a man and a woman leave their families and join together to become one where they often start their own family. Sociologists are mostly interested in the relationship between marriage and family as they form the key structures in a society. The key interest on the correlation between marriage and family is because marriages are historically regarded as the institutions that create a family while families are on the other hand the very basic unit upon which our societies are founded on.

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As divorce has become more common place in society, millions of children affected by separation of the nuclear family. For children, it is very hard to lose a parent because they just a little children that did not known what the situations really is. Also, a child 's life becomes more stressful because of the losses of parental support and economic. Significantly affect the child 's welfare. Since many children do not adapt well, their behavior is affected.

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In this essay we are going to discuss the causes and effects of divorce on children. Divorce is a very painful process for both the children and the parents. We are going to start by looking at the causes of divorce. These causes vary from one family to another therefore we are going to discuss the most common causes. Sharlene (1995 ) states that there are many causes that lead to divorce.

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