Sarah McLanahan, a leading divorce researcher at Princeton University, has identified moving as one of the most damaging effects of divorce for children. That is because the children lose invaluable ties to friends that may be able to help them cope with the new stress they are faced with. McLanahan and Gary Sandefur conclude that up to 40% of the increased risk of being a high school drop out is attributed to moving as a result of divorce (Chira 01E). The short term effects or divorce vary depending on the age and sex of most children. Boys and girls handle the break-ups with different emotions for example, some get angry, some feel sad, and some may experience feelings of rejection. Preschool age children, ages three to five, many times react with feelings of anger and sadness. Many of the preschool age children will regress after the initial shock of the separation. Signs of regression could be once again asking for a security blanket, bedwetting, returning to thumb sucking, needing help feeding themselves, or hitting their siblings. The children in this age group are more anxious and insecure than a child growing up in a two-parent home (Teyber 11). The majority of the children in the preschool age-group have abandonment issues and fear that since one parent has left the home that the other may move out as well. .
As the children get older the effects the divorce has on them is different but no less traumatizing. School aged children between the ages of six to eight seem to have an especially difficult time dealing with their parents splitting up. Generally, the boys in this age group tend to be more bothered than the girls. Sadness is the primary reaction of the children in this age group. There will be more out bursts of crying, and these children are prone to feeling that the departing parent is rejecting them. Many children of this age group try to reconcile the marriage and spend more time worrying about the family than anything else.