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Chelsea Brown

Professor Cook

ENG 1201-508

18 October 2021

Literature Review

Divorce can be a rough time for many families, and it can take a toll on your mental

health. The effects of divorce have been seen to cause behavioral issues in kids when they grow

up, specifically in their teenage years (Berlin). Most people tend to associate the effects of

divorce as negative to the health of children. Regardless of age or circumstances, divorce has

lasting negative effects of the children involved. How does parental divorce affect the wellbeing

of a child?

The failure of a marriage can have underlying problems that may not be visible to others.

There are many outcomes and stressors causing marriages to fall apart, as indicated by Shelby

Scott in Reasons for Divorce and Recollections of Premarital Intervention. Shelby Scott stated

that getting married too young “was reported as a major contributing factor to divorce by 45.1%

of individuals,”. Financial problems were also a cause of divorce “by 36.7% of participants and

by at least one partner from 55.6% of couples,” (Scott). Scott proves the validity of her writing

by adding statistics to verify her information. There is a wide variety of causes of divorce, but

also many ways to help fix the tension between couples.

Michelle Manno’s article, “Preventing Mental Health Effects of Divorce on Children”

talks about how therapy and counseling can be helpful for most couples. Manno works in a
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counseling program at New York University and argues that counseling can be helpful for all

types of people, making her conclusions from her work experiences. However, in Gordon

Berlin’s article, he questions if lower-income couples would still get the same benefits from

marriage education programs as middle- or higher-class families. The “understanding of a

partner’s failings when the rent is due and there is not enough money to pay it” can be hard for

lower-class families who participate in counseling (Berlin). Berlin acquires his information from

studies, scholarly journals, articles, and other types of media. Berlin addresses unknowns and

knowns throughout the article, trying to inform others. However, Manno is trying to prevent the

negative effects of divorce from occurring in the article, using counseling as a preventative

measure. Manno’s goal behind the article may affect the statement she is making. The effects of

divorce impact the children just as much as the adults and it can result in harmful outcomes.

Kids can be impacted in many ways by a divorce; typically, these effects are negative and

can cause a variety of issues. Jane Anderson in her article backs up this statement by stating that

kids who have grown up in single parent households are twice as likely to experience behavioral

and emotional problems. Some of the examples of behavioral issues that can occur due to

divorce are teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, and higher school dropout rates (Berlin).

Michelle Manno concurs with Berlin listing poor school performance and experimenting with

risky behaviors as an issue in teenagers. Overall, Manno, Anderson, and Berlin are able to

concur on the different behavioral outcomes of children of divorce. There are also negative

emotional outcomes that may take a toll on the mental health of a child. Two mental health

issues that can occur according to D’Onofrio and Emery is anxiety and depression. Kids with

divorced parents may also face other issues that are out of their control and may receive criticism

from others around them.

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Both Michelle Manno in her article and Leon Kim in his scholarly article “Risk and

Protective Factors in Young Children’s Adjustment in Parental Divorce,” described how teachers

may have a biased opinion on the behavior of kids whose parents are married compared to

divorced. The teachers tend to view the bad behavior of kids with divorced parents more

negatively than the bad behavior of kids with married parents (Manno; Kim). Kim uses plenty of

scholarly books, journals, and statistics to help inform the readers of the outcomes of parental

divorce on children. While there is plenty of information about divorce, there are some

misconceptions surrounding it.

Many people think that the children will still be able to see both parents, but that is not

true in all cases. The custody battle between parents may not always end up in an even split, in

some cases one parent may obtain full custody, leaving the other parent out of the picture.

Growing up without another parent could have detrimental effects on a child (Berlin).

There are lots of possible negative effects of divorce that can occur based on the age of

the child and there are some ways to help reduce the negative effects. Further research would

need to be conducted about the different impacts on the children when the divorce occurs, a more

detailed age by age breakdown. More statistics would need to be acquired to further convey

claims in the research essay. Overall, the well-being of children may decline throughout the

process of divorce and after it occurs.

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Works Cited

Anderson, Jane. “The Impact of Family Structure on the Health of Children: Effects of Divorce.”

National Center for Biotechnology Information, Nov. 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go

v/pmc/articles/PMC4240051/#C25. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021.

Berlin, Gordon. “The Effects of Marriage and Divorce on Families and Children.” MRAC, May

2004, https://www.mdrc.org/publication/effects-marriage-and-divorce-families-and-

children. Accessed 18 Oct. 2021.

D'Onofrio, Brian and Emery, Robert. “Parental Divorce or Separation and Children's Mental

Health.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2 Jan. 2019,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6313686/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2021.

Leon, Kim. “Risk and Protective Factors in Young Children’s Adjustment in Parental Divorce: A

Review of the Research.” Family Relations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied

Family Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, Jul. 2003, pp. 258–270. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1741-

3729.2003.00258.x. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021. 

Manno, Michelle. “Preventing Mental Health Effects of Divorce on Children.” National Alliance

on Mental Illness, 25 Aug. 2017, https://nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/August-

2017/Preventing-Mental-Health-Effects-of-Divorce-on-Chi. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021. 

Scott, Shelby, et al. “Reasons for Divorce and Recollections of Premarital Intervention:

Implications for Improving Relationship Education.” US National Library of Medicine

National Institutes of Health, 1 Jun. 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM

C4012696/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2021.