Divorce in America

By all accounts , divorce in the United States is a problem . With statistics that show that about half of all marriages in this country fail , one has to wonder what sort of effect this is having on the children that are witness to these divorces . This will examine the effects of divorce on children and ask what , if anything , can be done to ease the number of divorces in this country

In regard to children , there are positive consequences of divorce Leading up to the separation between parents , there will obviously especially

if the divorce is violent , be much fighting between the two parties . Some parents may even go so far as to try to recruit the child to their side ' in an attempt to get the child to favor one parent over another . This alone would have negative consequences on the child especially if still immature enough to grasp the full seriousness of the situation , the child is torn between what parent they are going to love more . A divorce though , would mostly rid the child of being forced to do this , ended much of the tension that is bound to come up leading to a divorce

In reality though , the negative consequences of divorce on children are far greater than the positive . When one accepts that nearly 50 percent of families that get a divorce end up in poverty , and then couples that with the fact that children whose parents are divorced display more health , behavior and emotional problems , the future outlook for the children of divorced parents is not good

Besides this , society also suffers immensely from the high rate of divorce . It has been shown that , contrary to the psychological theory of the blank slate ' the idea that children are all born psychologically equal and that their temperament is determined completely by their surroundings , that some children are easy children ' some are difficult ' and others are slow ' Those children that , since infancy , have been described as difficult , have a harder time forming the important bond that must develop between mother and child , and consequently are more prone to a life if crime that other children . When added on to this is a divorce , then the already strained relationship between child and parents will be magnified and the consequences for the child will be greatly worsened (Wilson , 1985

Divorce has always been with us . In ancient Athens , many people were divorced , and although divorce was forbidden after the tenth century , it was relatively common that a husband and wife would separate . However in today 's society , divorce has a very negative impact on our children and if something is not done , this trend will continue and possibly increase as the children of divorced parents themselves go on to get married and make the same mistakes as their parents

One way to curb the divorce rate would be to have all people involved Family is a community structure and families in turn need communities to survive . In...