Rhetorical Analysis Divorce

In the contrary, another longitudinal study took place across two decades with a cohort of preschoolers (4 years old) whose parents had been separated between 12-18 months. They were assessed again two years later (age 6) and then follow-ups occurred at 10, 16 and 24 years of age. The sample was expanded at each assessment and ended up including divorced, non-divorced and remarried individuals among 450 families. The most significant finding of the study was that 75% of the children were able to positively adjust between 2 – 6 years post divorce, while 25% still struggled with psychosocial problems for decades (Zimiles, 2004).

Divorce is one of many controversial subjects in family and human development research. What inspired me to critically analyze the article “Does Divorce Create Long-Term Negative Effects for Children?” is the challenge it would be for me to put my bias aside considering I am from a divorced home. After reading the article and analyzing it over and over, I can’t help but think that the writer answering “YES” to this controversial question overlooked many variables and over generalized his findings and research. With Zinsmeister overgeneralizing his research, not considering enough alternate explanations for long-term negative effects divorce, and his lack of relevant information needed to assess reliability and validity are why I find this article to be insightful but not accurate and hope to show why.

Psychologist Judith Wallerstein is an American psychologist who devoted 25 years to study the long-term effects of divorce on children. In a landmark longitudinal study, Wallerstein followed 131 children from 60 families of divorce for 25 years, beginning in 1971. . Interviewing them every five years, she found out that even 25 years after the divorce, those children, who were already adults, continued to experience substantial expectations of failure, fear of loss, fear of change and fear of

All the subjects were middle-class, suburban families, and the children, by and large, were happy, health youngsters. Wallerstein and Kelly made this selection deliberately to eliminate the effects of poverty, urban living, and preexisting emotional disturbance on families, thus highlighting the impact of divorce. The researcher found that divorce hit almost all children like a bolt

For couples with children divorce can wreak havoc on family relations. The behavior of children can change rapidly, in Cherlin (1993) it has been stated that, “children whose parents separated or divorced displayed more behavior problems and performed more poorly in school than children whose parents remained married” (para. 3). It is important to note that each child is affected differently and relationships with parents will not always be bitter (Cherlin, 1993). The personal source is a friend of many years whose parents divorced when she was very young. Her brother was also very young at the time of the divorce; each of them as male and female reacted differently to the divorce, just as it has been seen in many studies (Alex Pringle, Personal Communication, May 10,

Janet Shansky of Iona college wrote this intellectual article about some major theories within divorced families. These theories have the potential to explain the connection between parental divorce and negative outcomes for the children. These include, but are not limited to, the "marital disruption" theory, the "reduced resources" theory, and the "parental conflict" theory. Shansky takes a deep look at all of the research that went into these theories and how they explain the adverse effects of divorce on children. Another aspect of her article is how these significant theories can be put to use in intervening future students and children from having such a hard time with this major change in their life.

A comprehensive review of research from several disciplines regarding long-term effects of divorce on children yields a growing consensus that significant numbers of children suffer for many years from psychological and social difficulties associated with continuing and/or new stresses within the post divorce family and experience heightened anxiety in forming enduring attachments at later developmental stages including young adulthood. Different conceptual models in the field are explicated. Major lacunac in research, particularly around issues of public policy, are identified. The critical importance of expanding clinical research to enhance understanding of the child's perspective and experience is proposed.

Divorce, a very controversial issue in today’s society, has glaring effects on society as well as individuals. Approximately half of all marriages will end in divorce, resulting in close to one million children per year struggling to deal with the aftermath (Fischer 2007). Parental divorce has been proven to have long-term negative effects on adult mental health (Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin Kiernan 1995). Divorce was at its highest rate in the early 1980s. The first group of children to be affected by these very high divorce rates entered adulthood in the 1990s allowing sociological research to begin on the adverse affects associated with divorce over the span of different ages. Until this time, a lot of research focused on short-term effects surrounding

Many children go through a divorce at some point in their life. Statistics show that in a year, approximately one million children under eighteen experience their parent 's divorce; putting it into perspective, this is about forty percent of children (Matthews 1). Since 1960, the divorce rate has been doubling just about every decade until 1990, and currently has leveled off at that rate (Gallagher 1). Amy Desai researched psychologist, Judith Wallerstein, who performed a study where she interviewed children of a divorce eighteen months, five, ten, fifteen and twenty-five years after the divorce of their parents. After twenty-five years, she states, "Even 25 years after the divorce, these children continued to experience substantial expectations of failure, fear of loss, fear of change, and

According to the Encyclopedia of Psychology, one half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. With these one million children are affected each year. Eighty five percent of these children live in single parent households, with the mother being the head of the house. The father is usually distant or does not speak to the children at all. These children are highly affected and experience a great deal of emotional and academic problems. Especially when you compare them to children with non-divorced parents. During adolescence, these children have twice as high as a rate of dropping out of high school, having teenage pregnancy, and experiencing deliquiate behavior. I am not a child of divorce, but a child dear to me is. I have seen firsthand the emotional tear that it can play into a child’s life, and the way it affects a family. Divorce may cause children to grow up anxious and scared. Children may even ask themselves “why me?”, “what can I do?”, and “where should I go from here?”.

The rapid epidemic of divorce in the United States within the last 20 years has affected more than one half of the families in the United States. In the past, we have viewed divorce as a short term crisis and not as a longitudinal view of the effects divorce might bring. Divorce does affect children. However, it is not the divorce that is the problem; it is the ongoing conflict between the parents and the child’s coping mechanisms in their own stages of development. Counseling, family therapy, and also having a divorce mediation are all successful ways of coping with the family.

Children of divorce are far more likely to experience psychological difficulties, and these difficulties are likely to carry into adulthood. These children are faced with high rates of depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, and less satisfaction within their daily lives. In the novel “For Better Or for Worse”, expert of family dynamics Mavis Hetherington, reveals that “[t]wenty-five percent of youths from divorced families in comparison to 10 percent from non-divorced families did have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems.” They will also require more frequent use of mental health services than those with intact families. In the American Journal of Family Law, Doctor Sandford Portnoy investigates the psychological effects divorce has on offspring. “Girls from divorced families have, in some cases, been found to be significantly more depressed than girls from intact families, while boys are more hopeless and discouraged as the level of family distress increases.” These psychological difficulties will then accompany them into their adult relationships, where they will struggle with marital instability, satisfaction, conflict, and

One of the most outward stresses related with divorce is the downward economic trend that most often follows divorce. The trend cause raising children and maintaining a household a more difficult task to undertake (Hetherington, 1979, p. 851). “If a single mother goes to work shortly after the divorce to maintain adequate food and household supplies, the preschool child seems to experience the double loss of both parents”(Hetherington, 1979, p. 851).

In this paper, I will focus on the different ways in which divorce can affect children both socially and mentally. I will discuss how divorce is a process as well as an alternative developmental path that can lead to different outcomes for different children. The questions I will attempt to answer using methods such as focus groups and surveys are: How does divorce affect children overall? What are the factors that contribute to the well-being of children after divorce?

Wallerstein concluded in her study that divorce is a devastating event for adults and children and divorce experience is a continuum that begins in an unhappy home and extends through the formal divorce. Thus, its effects are long-lasting and children are affected because divorce happens during their formative years. The separation of their parents inculcate in their their inner world a certain view of themselves and society.