By Marisa Latinville
Growing up, it is expected that you will live with your parents and your siblings in the same household. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all households. As the years go on, the amount of children living in a single-parent household has had a major increase from 12% to 28% in 2003 according to Behere, Basnet and Campbell in 2017. There are many different factors that negatively affect a child’s mental health when living in a single- parent household that causes a butterfly effect into the child’s personal life.The trauma that children experience when living through their parents’ divorce causes mental health issues that lead to poor performance in school. Compared to a child of divorced parents, a child who lives with both their parents does not experience the same kind of trauma
According to “ACEs and Divorce” by Kerry Jamieson: “Between 40 and 50 percent of US marriages end in divorce. Divorce may seem commonplace, even mundane, these days but its prevalence is exactly what makes it such a threat to the healthy mental and physical development of children. While divorce may have become more socially acceptable in recent decades (or even ‘normalized’) the experience for children is almost universally difficult. There is no doubt that the conflict and chronic stress involved in divorce is one of the leading causes of trauma in young children and a very significant ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience).”
Although it is not usually planned, data shows that children of divorced parents, when adults, are asked to look back on the time when their parents got divorced. This brings back negative feelings of anxiety and stress. These feelings can also be associated with parental alienation syndrome. According to “Healthline,” “Parental alienation is a situation in which one parent uses strategies — sometimes referred to as brainwashing, alienating, or programming — to distance a child from the other parent. Parental alienation syndrome is a somewhat controversial term (more on that in a minute), but it’s used by many to describe the resulting symptoms in the child.” This is because most children are used as a shield or a threat when parents are going through the process of a divorce. Many times when parents have to bring in legal action, the children are often brought through the process as well. This may cause stress and tension. All these factors play a major role in the negative impact on the mental health of the child and is something that sticks with them through their adult years.
Children living through their parents divorce do have an effect on them throughout their life. This impact on their mental health is not one that children living with both parents can experience. There was a study done by “GenPsych” in October 2020 and according to their research team, “Researchers once surveyed 2,819 Canadian children of ages 4-7 and living with two biological parents. The survey was conducted in 1994 and 1998, respectively. The research findings show that even before marital breakup, children whose parents later divorce exhibit higher levels of anxiety/depression and antisocial behavior than children whose parents remain married. There is a further increase in child anxiety/depression associated with the event of parental divorce itself. The adverse effects of divorce on mental health may stay with child/adolescent well into their adulthood. In another study of 17,414 individuals in UK who were followed from ages 7 to 33, researchers found that experiencing parental divorce during childhood was related to worse mental health when the offspring were in their 20s and 30s.”
When children are put in the middle of their parents' divorce, this often affects their participation in school. According to “Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children’s Educational Attainment?” “Children whose parents divorce are, on average, less likely to complete high school and attend and complete college. Mechanisms explaining the negative effects of parental divorce have long been conjectured and assessed. Sociologists have, unsurprisingly, suggested that a decline in family income is a central mechanism in the association between parental divorce and children’s educational attainment according to Thomson and McLanahan in 2012.
Children who have experienced this kind of trauma lose their motivation to work hard in school that is what often leads to them dropping out of school. They experience a sort of mental block that leaves them unmotivated and distracted by their low self-esteem.
The divorce rate increases on a daily basis. Not only is this unfortunate for the parents, but also has a major impact on the mental health of their children. Sometimes the impact of a divorce can be much harder for a child than the parents. It can be argued that children who do not experience this type of trauma in their life can have less mental instability and a better performance in school as well as in their personal life. The trauma from a child living through their parents’ divorce has stayed with the children throughout their adult years. This leads to many adults in therapy for the rest of their lives trying to heal years of the divorce having a negative effect on their mental health.
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