Effects of Divorced Parents on Children's Future Relationships The increasing occurrence of divorce in the United States has become a major concern for social scientists who are finding a pattern between children of divorced parents and their adult relationships. Many researchers have begun proving the consequences of the popularity of divorce for future generations. Children whose parents divorce are more likely to enter marriage with a relatively lower commitment to, and confidence in, the future of those marriages, which ultimately raises their risk for divorce. This research will focus on how the divorce of parents does not only play a role during their child's adolescent years but can have consequences that carry into adulthood relationships.
According to many psychological studies, such as one done by the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (2001) and Gumbiner (2011); children from divorced families have higher rates of behavioral and learning disorders, which can lead to problems in their own relationships in the future due to factors such as a lack of parental presence, discipline, and direction during key developmental stages (Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 2001). One approach to determine why children of divorced parents have a more increased risk of divorce themselves is due to post-divorce developmental issues. These children have proved to have more aggressive, impulsive, and antisocial behaviors as well as more problems in their relationships with their mothers and fathers than children who came from intact two-parent households (Kelly 1998). The main way children learn about relationships is by watching their parents interact. Therefore, if children see their parents communicate negatively, then they are more likely to communicate this way themselves. Children who grow up in divorced homes usually have less contact with the non-custodial parent, and as time goes on, the parent child-relationship seems to gradually deteriorate. This creates a break in the parental model that serves as the relationship template for all future relationships in life. Children of divorced parents often lack positive examples of communication which is key at most developmental stages of their life. Seeing how parents manage conflict also plays a big part in how a child can act as an adult in their own relationships (Amato & DeBoer, 2001). How quickly parents can get angry seems to have a particularly powerful influence on children's own skills in dealing with anger toward others. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that children who grow up in households in which their parents do not manage conflict or disagreement tend to follow in the same steps.
Research has shown the main cause of divorce of children who come from divorced homes are commitment issues and the inability to trust. It has been inferred that both a lack of commitment to marriage and lower confidence that marriages can remain sta...
