When most people think of families they think of a mother, a father, and two kids. This is the norm for most families in the United States. However, some families are single parent families. This means that the child grows up in families with either only a mother or a father. However not all families will stay like this. Some families can end and lead to divorce. "Of all the changes in family life during the 20th century, perhaps the most dramatic--and the most far-reaching in its implications--was the increase in the rate of divorce"(Amato). Divorce can have a major impact on the child. These impacts can be life changing and these changes can even affect their life in adulthood.
Many new challenges will come in to play. The majority of them can affect the child in a negative way if it is not handled with correctly. New changes will impact the child life. The child might feel that the divorce is their fault. Trust can be affected greatly and denial in the child can be seen almost always in their life. Lastly, for some, divorce can even lead to depression. Divorce affects the child more than most people think. The result of the affects can vary greatly whether it is a positive one or a negative one.
Firstly, no matter the age, divorce introduces a new and big change to the child. Once a single house with one family becomes two homes with two separate families. Depending on the situation, a child will only see one parent for a majority of the time and might have to move from one house to another. Change in anything is hard to accept. Change in life where something is permanent, such as divorce, can be even harder to accept.
Trust becomes a major issue for the child as well. A child's world is an innocent and gentle one where they rely on the parents to show them how to interact with others.
"The child's world is a dependent one, closely connected to parents who are favored companions, heavily reliant on parental care, with family the major locus of one's social life.