Pradhan 1

Menuka Pradhan

Mr. Jorgensen

English 1010

07/26/2018

Divorce Effect on Children

Divorce is usually a terrible experience for a children. It starts with two adults but always

end up with greatly impacting children. Divorce has negative impact on children because they

didn’t get enough love and support and even have to split their time between their parents. I am

personally interested in this topic because it relates to my sister’s and niece’s lives. I have seen

how my niece suffers socially, physically, and emotionally as a consequence of her parents’

divorce. Even three years later, she wants her parents together. I want to know how the divorce

of her parents will affect her life in the future. I also wonder whether she can overcome the effect

of divorce in adulthood.

In “Divorce’s Toll on Children,” Karl Zinsmeister stated that divorce affects children’s

social, behavioral, physical and mental health. The author said that children of divorced parents

were more aggressive, and they were at greater risk of dropping out of school at an early age.

They may have earned lower grades at school, and they were more likely to have marital

problems of their own. One of the research studies that Zinsmeister quoted showed how parents

underestimated the effects of their divorces and that children wanted to have both their parents

together. The author said children of divorced parents rated the support they received from home

much lower than children of an intact home. Moreover, children in divorced families received
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less emotional support, financial assistance and practical help from their parents. The author said

that the effects of divorce can follow children into adulthood.

In this article, Zinsmeister used overemphasis as a tool to persuade the audience about the

long-term effects of divorce on children. The author used overly strong points to convince the

reader that children of divorced parents have to suffer a lot throughout their lifetimes. The author

used emotional language. For instance, he called divorce a “marital rupture” and that children

“feel torn in two” (page 1, 2). Here Zinsmeister cited many study authors, such as University of

Hawaii psychiatrist John McDermott, Judith Wallerstein, and Mavis Hetherington of the

University of Virginia.

This article was published in the May/June 1996 issue of American Enterprise. This think

tank was conservative politically and socially. In this article the author presented the bad impacts

of divorce on children because he wanted parents to be aware of the effects of getting divorced

and not to underestimate the effects of divorce on children.

In his text “Split Views on Divorce’s Effect on Kids,” Felix Carroll evaluated two recent

studies about the effects of divorce on children.The first study, by professor Constance Ahrons,

stated that the effects of divorce on children can be overcome. She concluded that children with

divorced parents can be stronger and wiser after the divorce. Her study stated that some children

suffered bad effects but most did not. The second study, by Elizabeth Marquardt, stated that there

were good divorces and bad divorces, but even a good divorce had many impacts. She compared

children from good divorce experiences who had many more problems than children of intact

families. Her study also found that children suffered emotional scars for their lifetimes because
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they had to divide their time between their parents. The primary difference between the two

studies was of their way of thinking about divorce.

In this text I enjoyed the way the author based his writing on facts. He was able to look at

both sides of the issue. He connected with those who had been negatively affected by divorce but

also with those who had neutral or positive experiences with their families’ divorces. There were

many comparisons, examples, and strong statements, such as when the author said, “so-called

‘good divorce’ is certainly better than a bad divorce, but it’s still not good” (page 2). The paper

could have been improved by having statements from actual kids going through their parents’

divorces, instead of just researchers. Although the researchers gave helpful and interesting facts,

it is always helpful to hear from someone actually involved.

The evidence supported my own beliefs. I agreed with how Carroll presented the idea of

how divorce affects children throughout their lives, not just while it is happening. He mentioned

several examples of children who are able to do better due to their parents separating. Instead of

being in toxic households they had time with their parents separately in calm environments.

Although the children may have had some desire for parents who were still together, they

understood that it was better for their particular parents not to be together.

In “Effect of Loss of a Father Through Divorce on Personality of the Preschool Child” by

Peter O. Peretti and Anthony Di Vitorrio, the authors stated that children suffered socially,

emotionally, and intellectually because of their parent’s divorce. If parents divorced when

children were in their preschool period of development, divorce could interfere with the future

personality development in a child. The authors said that children may have felt depressed or bad
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because they felt responsible for their parent’s divorce. The authors mentioned that the

relationship between a father and child was different after divorce. Interviews conducted with

preschool children showed that children felt guilty, less interested in social activities, depressed,

had less self-confidence, and were less sure of their own abilities and capacities because of their

loss of a father by divorce.

When we think about divorce, most people worry about the impacts of divorce on

children. Everyone knows that divorce may have negative effects on children. In this article the

authors researched the effects of divorce on a specific age group. The authors used a combination

of ethos, pathos, and logos. The authors appeal to logos by interviewing 66 preschool children,

33 boys and 33 girls, who were living with single mothers. Displaying their knowledge on the

subject also worked as an appeal to ethos. The authors also used some emotional strategies to

highlight that children suffered socially, emotionally, and intellectually because of their parent’s

divorce, and also they felt less sociable and abandoned.

In this article the authors used their word tools so effectively that they were able to

convince the audience that divorce has long-term impacts on children from an early age. The

authors addressed this article to parents who were considering divorce or in the process of

divorce already. All of these efforts worked together to create a good argument that divorce was

absolutely not a good thing for the children involved.

According to Deborah’s research, divorce has negative effects on children but these

effects are predictable depending on various factors, their age, gender, compounding factors,

communication and community support. Boys ages from 7 to 12 experience the strongest
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negative effects from divorce than girls do. However, she states that girls manifest the strongest

effect of divorce during adolescent.(Deborah, 2010).

Betsy whose parents got divorced when she was in the teenage. According to her, divorce

gives so much to pain to children and sometimes children never outgrow their parent’s divorce.

40 percent of marriages with couples who have children end in divorce.(divorcestatistics.org).

She feel divorce of her parents is more painful than the death of parents because she had to split

her time between her parents. From her parents divorced what she learnt was to repeat the same

thing or to determine to do right thing, the best way to protect the child is to loves the husband

and husband loves the wife.(Betsy, 2014).

Divorce can have a life changing impact on the well being of children. Divorce certainly

brings long-term effect on children social, emotional, psychological, and educational field.

Through research it reflect that divorce may have a great impact on children for a long period of

time. Children may experience many effects of divorce from a young age through adulthood.

However, some children may overcome the effects of divorce. Research from the third article

illustrate that children may feel abandoned after losing a father. All the articles demonstrate the

serious effects of divorce children may experience. But with the positive support from parents

despite divorce around the child, the child can live better life and begin to move on past life of

parents divorce. Parents should put their conflict aside and spend more time with children in a

fun activities in order to avoid developing guilt on children.

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Works cited

Zinsmeister, Karl. "Divorce's Toll on Children." ​American Enterprise​, vol. 7, no. 3, May/June

96,

p. 39. EBSCO​host​,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h

&AN=9610082972&site=eds-live​.Dec 5, 2017.

Felix Carroll Special to the Star ; ALBANY TIMES, UNION. "Split Views on Divorce's Effect

on Kids." ​Toronto Star (Canada)​, n.d. EBSCO​host​,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h

&AN=6FP0472394020&site=eds-​.Dec 5, 2017.

Pereti, Peter O. and Anthony Di Vitorrio. "Effect of Loss of Father through Divorce on

Personality of the Preschool Child." ​Social Behavior & Personality: An International

Journal​, vol. 21, no. 1, Feb. 1993, pp. 33-38. EBSCO​host,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh

&AN=12966626&site=eds-live​.Dec 5, 2017.

​ iberty University. Nov 21

Whitley, Deborah. “Impact of Divorce on Children”. ​Youtube. L

2010. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i2Kwg-IMo.July​ 24, 2018.

​ ct 27, 2014.
Rintel, Alana. ”The Effect of Divorced Parents on a child’s Future”.​Youtube O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf56mA51Jdw​.July 24, 2018.

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Works cited

Zinsmeister, Karl. "Divorce's Toll on Children." ​American Enterprise​, vol. 7, no. 3, May/June96,

p. 39. EBSCO​host,​

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h

&AN=9610082972&site=eds-live

Felix Carroll Special to the Star ; ALBANY TIMES, UNION. "Split Views on Divorce's Effect
on Kids." ​Toronto Star
 Pradhan 8

(Canada)​, n.d. EBSCO​host​,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h
&AN=6FP0472394020&site=eds-

Pereti, Peter O. and Anthony Di Vitorrio. "Effect of Loss of Father through Divorce on
Personality of the Preschool

Child." ​Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal​, vol. 21, no. 1, Feb.
1993, pp. 33-38.
EBSCO​host,
libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh
&AN=12966626&site=eds-live

​ iberty University. Nov 21

Whitley, Deborah. “Impact of Divorce on Children”. ​Youtube. L

2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i2Kwg-IMo

​ ct 27, 2014.
Rintel, Alana. ”The Effect of Divorced Parents on a child’s Future”.​Youtube O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf56mA51Jdw
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