Throughout the years the number of divorces in the United States has increased greatly. There are now more marriages that end in divorce than marriages that remain stable. Divorce has become much more common, and social attitudes toward divorce have changed. Of course we know that both people that have to go through the divorce suffer dramatic emotion problems, and many may experience years of serious depression. Often these couples do not know just how powerful that separation can affect their children. This year more than one million American children were disrupted by a separation or impending divorce. Divorces often end up having two different households being established along with different economic boundaries. A relationship among the parent and their child must also change, because they will never know how much time they will get to spend with their child. The child might also hold a grudge and blame one parent or the other. .
For children and adolescents, the separation and the affects afterwards is the most stressful period of their lives. The family separation can evoke shock, intense fears, and grieving; which some children find overwhelming. .
Research has shown that a child's early response to divorce is not governed by any balanced understanding of the issues that led to the parent's decision. Children are also not affected by living in a community with a high incidence of divorce. Instead, when a child's parents separate their attention is only on the separation of his or her own family and the child is intensely worried about what is going to happen to him or her. The divorce signifies the collapse of that structure and he or she feels alone and very frightened. Adding to the distress that children have to face is the fact that many of them face the tensions and sorrows of divorce with little help from their parents or anyone else. This problem happens not because parents do not love their children or care anymore, but only because they get so involved in their own emotional problems and tend to focus their attention on their own troubles.
