Impact of Divorce on Child Well-Being
This is a topic that I am most familiar with, not just because I personally experienced a divorce myself within my own family of origin, but from doing my own valuable personal research on the topic of divorce and how it effects children. The question that I will now pose is, does divorce really and truly impact children? Through my own personal beliefs and values on how divorce impacts children I plan is to share my insights with you and the ways to keep the perspective whole.
Key Research Findings:
From the article, Impact of Divorce on Child Well-Being, I was able to get an understanding from professionals and their findings through the data that they presented throughout the article. Here is a little excerpt from the article in which it stuck out to me most of all. Here, Paul Amato says: “Young adults from divorced families of origin reach adulthood with less education, lower income job status and increased risk of experiencing depression. An increased risk of experiencing marital conflict and divorce in their own marriages. And of having weak long- term emotional bonds with their parents. They tend to report being less close to their parents. So we see that the implications of growing up in a divorced family, for at least some children, do and often can persist well into adulthood. So we’re not necessarily talking about short-term effects that quickly dissipate. Now all of this sounds pretty negative. But let me make a very important qualification. Question, are all children affected similarly? And the answer is no. Definitely not. Instead what we see is a great deal of variability in how children adapt to divorce.”
When I was reading that part of the article I almost got pretty angry at one point! How could he say all those negative things about children and divorce, I definitely did not turn out that way and I came from a divorced family myself! But, once I completed reading the rest of his quote, my nerves settled down and I was able to relax and regain my composure. That last section when Paul Amato asked a question stating if all children are affected similarly, he went on to say no they are not and instead what you can see is a great deal of variability in how children adapt to divorce. I was thrilled that he backed up that negativity with positive research findings, and that he did not leave it an open-ended statement. This whole Seminar was very motivational for me to read and I love being able to read and learn more about divorce. I find it all to be valid learning about the topic. In the end it helps me to keep on progressing and growing.
Personal thoughts about the Topic:
Like I have mentioned previously, I have my own personal account of going through a divorce within my family of origin when I was just ten years old. It has helped me to open my eyes even more to all that is around me. My parents’ divorce is the one of the main thing that benefits me most out of everything else in my life thus far. I can look back on those extremely challenging years, and quite honestly they were hell (pardon my French), but they were literally unbearable at times. Now, at the stage of life that I am in now I am truly able to see how it has had a positive effect on me. I am not destined to have a divorce happen to me, just because it happened to my parents. Together with my husband we are the ones who will make a life of our own. It’s only ours to share in forever, and that knowledge brings me the greatest blessings of all.
In conclusion, to portray my personal thoughts on the topic of divorce impact child well-being, I thought that the most appropriate way would be to show how influenced children truly are through their parents divorcing. As you have read there are still many people and researchers who believe that divorce doesn’t really affect children, when in reality it does in one way or another. I have seen these effects through my own personal experience through being apart of a divorce within my family. I have seen the positives but I have also seen the negatives. We can see that many children of divorce are stronger for their struggles. I know that I am personally stronger as a result and also as an out- come of my parents’ divorce. Children can think of themselves as survivors who have learned to rely on their own judgment and to take responsibility for themselves and others at a young age. Children have had to invent their own morality and values.
Eventually, children will understand the importance of economic independence and hard work; children are in fact impacted by divorce but they will learn to maintain reverence for good, honest, and valuable family life in their futures. I know this because I who I am, I know what I want out of my life, and I don’t let my parents’ divorce put a title on me or let it affect me and what my future has in store for me. Divorce doesn’t control me; I have control on my life. And it is through the constant companionship that I have with my husband, which keeps me on the path I know I need to be on in my life. One, which I know is everlasting and eternal through my loving Heavenly Father’s plan for my own little family, it binds us together through the family ties that we will share.
Resource:
Impact of Divorce on Child
Well-Being. NHMRC Webinar, National Healthy Marriage Resource Center. October
22, 2008.
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