Behind the Scenes: A Children’s Perspective on Divorce
Stephen Ashurst
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Email: hnrp@iup.edu
April 29, 2010
Abstract:
Nearly fifty percent of all American marriages end in divorce, but how does that affect
the children? This study looked at the effects of how a divorce affects a child growing up.
Contrary to popular belief it is not just the divorce that causes problems for children growing up,
but it is the entire process of the divorce, from the beginning until adulthood. In this study,
autoethnography and creative nonfiction were used to create a novel dealing with the aspects that
children in these situations face. “During the past three decades, studies have shown that
children with divorced parents have an elevated risk of experiencing a variety of problems in
early adulthood, including low socioeconomic attainment, weak ties with parents, symptoms of
depression, and relationship instability.”1 All experiences throughout the novel were dictated by
the participants of the study. This study gives the reader a bird’s eye view of child development
in a divorced home. Results of this study proved that a divorce in the household affects every
aspect of a child’s mind.
Children growing up in divorced families show stronger tendencies than children with
intact families to do all of the following:
1. Experiment with sex and drugs at earlier ages.
2. Develop higher levels of depression and anxiety, lower self esteem, and more
frequent uses of psychological services.
3. Engage in adolescent delinquent behavior.
4. Exhibit lower academic performances.
5. Develop dysfunctional relationships with family, significant others, and friends.
Note that not all children that grow up in divorced families experience these problems, but
studies done by leading researchers such as Paul Amato, Juliana Sobolewski, Heather
Westerberg, E. Hetherington, and J. Kelly show that a majority of these children face these
problems.
Important Moments:
1. Parental Distress
2. Divorce Disclosure
3. Aftermath of the Divorce
1
Sobolewski, Juliana M. and Paul R. Amato. “Parent’s Discord and Divorce, Parent-Child Relationships and
Subjective Well-Being In Early Adulthood: Is Feeling Close To Two Parents Always Better Than Feeling Close To
One.” Social Forces 85, no. 3 (2007): 1105, http://www.ebscohost.com
4. Growing up in a divorced family
Methodology:
1. Interviews were conducted by myself to my brothers. In these interviews, questions
were asked to understand how each participant felt about the divorce. Sample
questions include: how finding about the divorce made you feel, how did you learn to
deal with the divorce, did the divorce change any of your attitudes/relationships
towards anyone
2. Interviews were done separately in order to keep each participant’s accounts separate
and anonymous.
3. After the interviews were conducted all three participants were then asked to convey
their thoughts with each other.
Findings:
Through interviews and the group session, the participants grew to realize that a lot of the
feelings that they shared during the course of their childhood were unanimous. Two of the
participants agreed that this process worked in a therapeutic sense, while the other participant
denied this effect.
Selected References:
Amato, Paul R. and Jacob E. Cheadle. “Parental Divorce, Marital Conflict and Children’s
Behavior Problems: A Comparison of Adopted and Biological Children.” Social Forces
86, no. 3 (2008): 1139-1161. http://web.ebscohost.com
Portnoy, Sanford M. “The Psychology of Divorce: A Lawyer’s Primer, Part 2: The Effects of
Divorce on Children.” American Journal of Family Law 21, no. 4 (2008): 126134. http://web.ebscohost.com
Westerberg, Heather, Thorana S. Nelson, and Kathleen W. Piercy. “Disclosure of Divorce Plans
to Children: What the Children Have to Say.” Contemporary Family Therapy: An
International Journal 24, no.4 (2002): 525-542. http://web.ebscohost.com
University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Autoethnography in First-Year Writing.”
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/rlhunter/web/autoethnographyinfyw/using%20ae.htm