Health Effects on Children During a Divorce

 

This guest post is from Regent Family Law student Emily Heck:

Marriage is a legal union of two people that is recognized in the United States and the world over. About ninety percent of all Americans will be married by the age of fifty. Research shows that marriage is beneficial to both a couple’s mental and physical health. It is also beneficial to children that the couple may have by providing the children with a stable environment to grow and develop. However, forty to fifty percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce. This dissolution of marriage can have health effects on the children while the parents are going through the process of divorce.

Divorce is a challenging time for a family and many times the children will struggle with the transition. While it may vary from child to child, a divorce can often result in health effects on the children. Divorce can affect children’s emotions as they adapt to the changing circumstances in their families. Some emotions a child can experience are feelings of loss, anger, confusion, anxiety, and many others during that time.

The process of divorce can be very stressful for children. Divorce can cause children to have a higher perceptibility to sickness, which can be caused by lack of sleep or depression. Divorce also decreases the child’s emotional security by weakening relationships with their parents. Research has shown that divorced mothers are less likely to provide emotional support to child and divorced fathers are less likely to spend time with their children. 

Overall, parents play a major role in how children will react to the divorce. The “best interest of the child” is the standard for determining decisions as they relate to children in custody and divorce proceedings and that should also be considered when helping children through the divorce. Notions and objectives of family restoration direct the importance of parents maintaining healthy relationships with the children. Helping the children to feel secure and safe during the process will help the children’s emotional stability and reduce the long-term effects of the dissolution of their parent’s relationship.