Divorce and Children

A study done for time magazine on the effects of divorce on children showed that the negative effects of divorce are enduring. The study took 25 and was done on 60 families and found that the children of divorced parents had difficulties later on in life. Although these findings do not clearly reflect the effects due to the fact that there was no control group. Other studies show that children go through the divorce without long-term emotional damage. The effects of divorce depend on severity of the conflict between parents. When the conflict before divorce is more mild the effects are actually more severe than parents with severe conflict before the divorce. Divorce can produce negative effects in some kids. There have been twin studies on the effects of divorce to account for the genetic effects. Researchers found that children of identical twins who'd divorced had higher levels of depression and substance abuse and did worse in school than the children of identical twins who had not divorced. these findings do not rule out the possibilities that the parents conflict before and during the divorce accounts for the differences. I believe that it is the severity of the conflict before and during the divorce and the age of the children determine how it will effect the kids. My parents separated when I was eight. Because of how severe their arguments were just before and during the divorce I just wanted them to separate. Even as an eight year old I Knew that they would be happier apart then together. I also believe that the age of the children is very important. I believe that I was so young I was able to cope with the idea of my parents being apart. I think that there is a certain age window when divorce will effect the children more severely, somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13 or 14.