1. Effects of Divorce on Adults and Children By Nicole Townsend

3. Parents are able to enhance their children’s well being post divorce by keeping positive activities in their lives and doing things together. By doing these, parents are able to minimize the effects of divorce on children somewhat.

4. Children’s reactions to divorce are dependent on three factors: 1) the quality of their relationship with each of their parents before the separation, 2) the intensity and duration of the parental conflict, and 3) the parents’ ability to focus on the needs of their children in the divorce. Older studies showed boys had greater social and academic adjustment problems than girls. New evidence indicates that when children have a hard time, boys and girls suffer equally; they just differ in how they suffer.

5. Boys are more externally symptomatic-acting out anger/frustration/hurt

8. Twenty-five adults- thirteen women, twelve men between thirty and sixty years old.

9. All participants have experienced at least one divorce up until present time.

10. Three children and six adults have either just finished divorce procedures, or are currently in the process of finishing them.

12. Adults were given a survey of fourteen.

13. Both groups stated their age and sex at the top.

15. Results General results Many of the participants said that the first things they did right after the divorce was spend money. Women that got a settlement said that they went out to get the things they needed, and then blew the rest on something in order to feel good. Many of the children (five girls and four boys) felt like they wanted to get in trouble more, and that they didn’t feel as inclined to do their homework or chores when asked. They also said that they felt unsure of other relationships due to the fact that one that was supposed to be together had fallen apart. The older children (two girls and one boy, ages 17 and 18) said that they feel they developed trust issues with others after the divorce because they were too afraid to make a commitment then have it end too soon.

17. Adults seem to transition better than children do to post divorce life

18. I am able to accept my hypothesis.

19. If I were to do this again, I would conduct a more in-depth study, with more participants and more questions. Possibly a partial in-person interview.

21. Kimmel, M. S. (2008). The Gendered Media. In The Genderd Society (3rd ed., pp. 157-162). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 2000)

22. Lye, D. N. (1999). What the Experts say: scholarly research on post-divorce parenting and child well-being. Report to the Washington State Gender and Justice Commission and Domestic Relations Commission, Retrieved from http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Acs1lzZmo7cJ:www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/chap4.doc+SCHOLARLY+RESEARCH+ON+POST-DIVORCE+PARENTING+AND+CHILD+WELL-BEING&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us