Effects of Divorce

There are many reasons researchers site different effects of divorce as it pertains to adults and children.  First, we must consider everyones perspective on the event that is involved with the divorce.  These perceptions can make a significant impact on whether or not an individual is resilient to the event.  The perception of society also has an impact on the individual, for instance our text states "compared to childless women, divorced mothers experienced harsher disapproval, particularly if they had young children, whereas divorced men did not perceive any differences in social reactions based on whether or not they were parents."(Price 144).  This can make a big difference in the social life of the individual and whether or not they receive adequate support from friends and family during their transition.  Another factor that contributes to different conclusions about the effects of divorce is each individuals economic stability prior to divorce.  Those who didn't have stability prior to it, will struggle more post divorce.  This in turn makes a big impact on children because they will have to adjust to a new lifestyle, often a new living space, most likely their mother now having to work outside of the home, all of these are stressors that are mitigated by pre divorce economic and emotional stability.  To myself, what makes the most sense for the discrepancy between researchers results are the risk factors and risk mechanisms.  These are going to be so different among individuals and if we are only studying the effects of divorce collectively rather than those with certain common risk factors, we are going to get such a vast array of results.  Each individual is unique and has different protective factors and risk factors to help alleviate some of the symptoms of divorce.  I think it would be helpful to narrow the studies of the effects of divorce based on gender, SES, psychological wellbeing etc.

Price, C. A., Bush, K. R., & Price, S. J. (2017). Families & change coping with stressful events and transitions(5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

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