When looking at the high divorce rates in America, it is clear that various structural factors are affecting the relationships of many American families. In most family situations there is not one clear-cut reason that leads to divorce. Rather, divorce is a gradual process that ultimately results in families breaking apart. After looking further into divorce, I thought about what effect divorce might have on the children in these families searched for two articles on the subject of children and divorce and was hoping to find conflicting ideas to make it a bit more interesting. .
I located two articles with authors" who had both contrasting and similar views on the subject. The first article is titled; "Happy Marriage Makes For Happy Kids". (author not listed) The author of this piece believes that two married biological parents are best for kids ("Happy Marriage"). The author stresses the importance of both biological parents rearing children in a low conflict marriage for future health and happiness ("Happy Marriage"). The second article is titled, "Moving on: Parental Breakups May Not Always Be Bad for Kids", by Susan Campbell. The author talks about how recent studies show that it is not the parent's marriage that affects children, but the parent child bond.
When comparing the authors" ideas I could only find one viewpoint that they agree on. This point is that an openly hostile marriage takes a greater toll on the children (Campbell). Although, contrasting Campbell states that if parents divorced it would be better for the children's later relationships. Campbell also makes the point that depending on the quality of the relationship between the parent and child, divorce might leave the child better off. The other author says nothing about divorce as an answer. Rather, the author talks about ways to keep marriage low-conflict. The author also makes the point that children in single parent families are more likely to have problems including depression, behavioral, and social problems ("Happy Marriage").