With each passing year, the divorce rate rises. In the last ten years the divorce rate has risen two percent. The number of children who are yearly affected (under sixteen) is over one hundred and sixty three thousand, and sixty-six percent of these children are under the age of eleven. "By the time a child is sixteen years old, one in four children are likely to have been through a divorce with their parents (Hawkins, p. 18)." Divorce has an affect on everyone involved not just the two individuals who are choosing to dissolve the marriage. Over 1 million American children suffer the divorce of their parents each year (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Half the children born this year to parents who are married will see their parents divorce before they turn 18, and the effects may last well into adulthood (Stanton, 1997).
Divorce affects all the children in the family, including adult children, at some time and to some degree. Some effects of divorce emerge rapidly following separation and some of the effects increase over the first years following divorce and then decline; still others emerge later. Although most children are not permanently traumatized by the divorce of their parents, it is evident that children of divorce are affected in some way throughout their lives.
Many studies show that divorce to a child is equivalent to the pain of the death of a parent. There is great loss, with grief, sadness, and confusion for the children involved. Children may believe that they are the cause of the divorce. They may think that the parent, who left, actually left them or left because of them which also may lead them to believe that the parent no longer loves them. Often the parents involved are so consumed with their own grief over the situation that they fail to see the devastating effects of the divorce on their children (McKay, 1997).
The break up of the family unity through divorce can be a horrid experience for children.