Does the Divorce of Parents Harm Their Children?
Each year the American society deals with divorce. Divorce introduces a massive change into children and adults life no matter what the age is. Divorce can be harmful to children if the parents continue to fight and argue and can never get along. Children can be made out to believe that the divorce between their parents was their fault or that they aren’t loved anymore. However, children can come out strong in divorce as long as their parents can be co-parents without conflict.
Divorce in America now is more common than it was back in the 1960’s and 70’s. Many couples got divorced due to infidelity and abuse. Now, in this day and age, men and women get divorced due to their own personal happiness. Professor Tamara D. Afifi spoke on a TEDxTalk in 2012 and said that many children from families who divorced and fight have more trust issues and hurt more on the inside than from children whose parents get along and co-parent without conflict. (Afifi, 2012)
Each year, over 1 million American children suffer the divorce of their parents; Half of American children born this year will witness divorce with their parents. Of that 50% another 50% will experience a second divorce. (Rector & Fagan, 2000) Many believe that divorce has a negative effect on children. Not only does it cause them to have trust issues and often have relationship difficulties later in life, but they tend to dwell on the divorce as their fault. Children of divorced parents perform more poorly in reading, spelling, and math; having to repeat a grade or have a less change to go to college is also more likely. (Rector & Fagan, 2000) Afifi asked her classroom of college students a simple question that she wanted them to write down the answer to as fast as they could. The question was, “Write down something that you would change about the way your parents