The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children Essay Example

The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children Essay The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children Dee Whitworth Angelina College Abstract Divorce can have many psychological effects on a child. When a marriage ends in divorce, a child of the marriage may view the divorce the same as if a parent has died. During the period following a parental separation a child may have feelings of denial, anxiety, abandonment, anger, guilt, depression and conflicts of loyalty. Because of the pain and emotional damage the child is sure to suffer, many parents stay in a dysfunctional marriage believing it is the best thing for their child. There are some cases where staying together for the sake of the child can actually be detrimental to the child. A parent can diminish the negative effects of a divorce by supporting and reassuring their children, before, during and after the separation. A parent can rebuild the child’s sense of security by reestablishing stability. If parents do not take the time to address the emotional needs of the child during the process of a divorce, parents can damage their relationship with their child and the emotional development of the child. Keywords: Divorce, Psychological effects, Children Divorce is a stressful time for every member of a family. The psychological effects of a child during this stressful time depend in part on the age of the child and the parents’ ability to control their emotions and to work together to sooth and reassure the child. Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) believe children in this age group are too young to understand what is happening. Even though these children may not understand what is happening between their parents, they may sense the distress their parents are feeling, and react negatively. We will write a custom essay sample on The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer According to Cohen (2002), â€Å"Infants and children younger than 3 years may reflect their caregivers’ distress, grief, and preoccupation; they often show irritability, increased crying, fearfulness, separation anxiety, sleep and gastrointestinal problems, aggression, and developmental regression† (p. 1019). The parents of a child in this age group need to work together to foster feelings of security in their child. According to Henning and Oldham (1977), Parents of pre-school hildren that establish consistent routines and reassure their children that they will not be abandoned are able to reestablish a child’s sense of security. Children that are four and five years of age sometimes feel that they are to blame for their parent’s divorce. They feel that if they had not been bad their parents would not be getting divorced. Additionally, children in this age group tend to believe that they can make their parents reconcile by being a good child. According to Henning and Oldham (1977), â€Å"Young children and pre-school children have an incomplete and confused understanding of what has caused such a radical change in the family routine† (p. 55). Cohen (2002) states that â€Å"At 4 to 5 years of age, children often blame themselves for the breakup and parental unhappiness, become more clingy, show externalizing behavior (acting out), misperceive the events of the divorce situation, fear that they will be abandoned, and have more nightmares and fantasies† (p. 1019). It has been implied that boys in this age group have a harder time adjusting to the divorce than young girls. According to Max (1970), the effects of an absent father are felt the most by boys aged four to six. Hetherington and Stanley-Hagen (1999) found that â€Å"Fathers involvement has been found to be greater with sons following divorce and to be more important for the development of boys than of girls† (p. 132). You could argue that the reason for this is because sons get their gender identify from their father, so the loss of a father affects a boy more than it does a girl. Parents can alleviate some of the anxiety of the child by allowing the father access to the child. If it is not possible for the father to maintain a close relationship with the child, due to violence or sexual abuse, the mother should take steps to find a suitable male role model to help her children, like a coach or scout leader (Sugar, 1970, p. 592). Gardner (1977) tells us that children often use a male teacher as a surrogate father figure. Adolescents and teenagers are more likely to openly show their anger toward their parents and become depressed during a divorce. They are more likely to act out by stealing, lying and becoming sexually promiscuous. These behaviors can lead the child to become pregnant or associate with other children who are also displaying delinquent behavior (Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan, 1999, p. 131). Cohen (2002) has stated that â€Å"School-aged children may be moody or preoccupied; show more aggression, temper, and acting out behavior; seem uncomfortable with gender identity; and feel rejected and deceived by the absent parent. School performance may decrease, and they may agonize about their divided loyalties and feel that they should be punished† (p. 1019). Adolescents and teenagers are often torn between their parents and show an alliance to one parent over the other parent. This alliance makes it difficult for the child to talk to one parent without feeling as if they are betraying their loyalty to the other parent. The alliance may also be utilized by the child to manipulate their parent (Henning @ Oldham, 1977, p. 56). Some children in this age group deal with their negative feelings by pulling away from their parents and becoming more independent. Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) found that â€Å"Some girls actually seem to be enhanced by dealing with the responsibilities, independence, and challenges associated with divorce in a supportive environment† (p. 132). Although some girls do seem to thrive after a divorce, they often grow into young women who set exceptionally high expectations for themselves, but still feel inadequate no matter how much they may accomplish. Although divorce has been found to enhancement some girls, it is rarely found that divorce has enhanced boys (Hetherington @ Stanley-Hagan, 1999, p. 132). Some parents maintain their unhappy marriage because they fear a divorce would negatively affect their child. In some cases, maintaining a turbulent marriage may be more detrimental to a child than an actual divorce (Rosen, 1977, p. 26). Additionally, â€Å"children adjust better in a harmonious single parent household that in an acrimonious two-parent household† (Hetherington @ Stanley-Hagan, 1999, p. 37). This confirms that a child can be negatively affected when parents try to stay together for the sake of the child. Rhona Rosen, M. A. , interviewed 92 children of divorce and found that â€Å"73 children stated in the strongest terms that they would not have chosen to have their parents stay together in conflict† (Rosen, 1977, p. 24). Parents who maintain a combative relationship for the sake of the child are actua lly hurting the child’s psychological development more than if they divorced. Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) believe â€Å"Children whose parents will later divorce is already showing problems in adjustment many years before the divorce† (p. 133). Children who are well adjusted before divorce are better able to adapt and navigate through the stressful time of divorce. Children who were poorly adjusted before a divorce continue having problems after a divorce and are at greater risk for adjustment problems in later life (Hetherington, 1999, p. 133). A lack of parental communication and guidance causes great distress to a child during a pending divorce. The paramount problem of children during the divorce process is that the adults involved in marital strife are not looking for ways in which to help their children adjust to the transition, but are searching for ways to implement their own personal life readjustment† (Henning @ Oldham, 1977, p. 56). Parents neglect to talk to their child the divorce because they fear giving too much informatio n would be detrimental to the child. This lack of information causes the child to blame themselves for the divorce or to come up with their own explanations for their parent’s divorce, which could be worse than the actual reasons for the divorce. According to Gardner (1977), â€Å"To deprive the children of information regarding the major issues that brought about the divorce can only produce distrust of the parents at a time when they are most in need of a trusting relationship† (p. 4). Couples that have friendly, cooperative relationships do not usually get divorced. When a relationship deteriorates and a couple decides to divorce, and there is a child involved, they need to put aside their hostilities and focus on the needs of the child. A child who is a product of divorce who has loving, supportive, communicative parents is more likely to be happy and social well adjusted. Alternatively, a child who is a product of divorce and has parents who remain combative and hostile is more likely to suffer depression and have dysfunctional relationships throughout their life. References Cohen, G. (2002). Helping Children and Families Deal With Divorce and Separation. American Academy of Pediatrics, 110(6), 1019-1023. Gardner, R. (1977). CHILDREN OF DIVORCE-SOME LEGAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 6(2), 3-6. Henning, J. , Oldham, J. (1977). CHILDREN OF DIVORCE: LEGAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISES. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 6(2), 55-58. Hetherington, E. , Stanley-Hagan, M. (1999). The Adjustment of Children with Divorced Parents: A Risk and Resiliency Perspective. Journal of Child Psychology Psychiatry Allied Disciplines, 40(1), 129-140. Rosen, R. (1977). CHILDREN OF DIVORCE: WHAT THEY FEEL ABOUT ACCESS AND OTHER ASPECTS OF THE DIVORCE EXPERIENCE. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 6(2), 24-26. Sugar, M. (1970). CHILDREN OF DIVORCE. Pediatrics, 46(4), 588-595.

Highlights of Late 19th Century Womens Labor Organizing

Highlights of Late 19th Century Women's Labor Organizing Some highlights of American womens labor organizing in the late 19th century: In 1863, a committee in New York City, organized by the editor of the New York Sun, began to help women collect wages due them that had not been paid. This organization continued for fifty years. Also in 1863, women in Troy, New York, organized the Collar Laundry Union. These women worked in laundries making and laundering the detachable collars stylish on mens shirts. They went on strike, and as a result won an increase in wages. In 1866, their strike fund was used to aid the Iron Molders Union, building a lasting relationship with that mens union. The leader of the laundryworkers union, Kate Mullaney, went on to become assistant secretary of the National Labor Union. The Collar Laundry Union dissolved July 31, 1869, in the the middle of another strike, faced with the threat of paper collars and the likely loss of their jobs. The National Labor Union was organized in 1866; while not exclusively focusing on womens issues, it did take a stand for the rights of working women. The first two national unions to admit women were the Cigarmakers (1867) and the Printers (1869). Susan B. Anthony used her paper, The Revolution, to help working women organize in their own interests. One such organization formed in 1868, and became known as the Working Womens Association. Active in this organization was Augusta Lewis, a typographer who kept the organization focused on representing the women on pay and working conditions, and kept the organization out of political issues such as woman suffrage. Miss Lewis became the president of the Womens Typographical Union No. 1 which grew out of the Working Womens Association. In 1869, this local union applied for membership in the national Typographers Union, and Miss Lewis was made corresponding secretary of the union. She married Alexander Troup, the unions secretary-treasurer, in 1874, and retired from the union, though not from other reform work. Womens Local 1 did not long survive the loss of its organizing leader, and dissolved in 1878. After that time, the Typographers admitted women on an equal basis to men, instead of organizing separate womens locals. In 1869, a group of women shoestitchers in Lynn, Massachusetts, organized the Daughters of St. Crispin, a national womens labor organization modeled on and supported by the Knights of St. Crispin, the national shoe workers union, which also went on record supporting equal pay for equal work. The Daughters of St. Crispin is recognized as the first national union of women. The first president of the Daughters of St. Crispin was Carrie Wilson. When the Daughters of St. Crispin went on strike in Baltimore in 1871, the Knights of St. Crispin successfully demanded that the women strikers be rehired. The depression in the 1870s led to the demise of the Daughters of St. Crispin in 1876. The Knights of Labor, organized in 1869, began admitting women in 1881. In 1885, the Knights of Labor established the Womens Work Department. Leonora Barry was hired as a full time organizer and investigator. The Womens Work Department was dissolved in 1890. Alzina Parsons Stevens, a typographer and, at one time, Hull House resident, organized the Working Womans Union No. 1 in 1877. In 1890, she was elected district master workman, District Assembly 72, Knights of Labor, in Toledo, Ohio. Mary Kimball Kehew joined the Womens Educational and Industrial Union in 1886, becoming a director in 1890 and president in 1892. With Mary Kenney OSullivan, she organized the Union for Industrial Progress, whose purpose was to help women organize craft unions. This was a forerunner of the Womens Trade Union League, founded in the early 20th century. Mary Kenney OSullivan was the first woman hired by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as an organizer. She had earlier organized women bookbinders in Chicago into the AFL and had been elected a delegate to the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly. In 1890, Josephine Shaw Lowell organized the Consumers League of New York. In 1899, the New York organization helped found the National Consumers League to protect both workers and consumers. Florence Kelley led this organization, which worked mainly through educational effort. Text copyright  © Jone Johnson Lewis . Image:  left to right, (front row): Miss Felice Louria, executive secretary of the New York City Consumers League; and Miss Helen Hall, director of the Henry Street Settlement in New York and chairman of the Consumers National Federation. (Back row) Robert S. Lynd, head of Department of Sociology, Columbia University; F.B. McLaurin, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Michael Quill, N.Y. City Councilman and president of Transportation Workers Union.

Plato's Republic, Book VII - The Allegory of the Cave Essay

Plato's Republic, Book VII - The Allegory of the Cave - Essay Example Since the cave represents the world in which we initially live, with the condition of gloom symbolic of human ignorance, as prisoners of ignorant thought or apprehension, we ought to settle such predicament by moving from the state of darkness where only illusions can be made into that of light in order to acquire a clear view of things. Here, Socrates attempts to communicate the essence of education in the significance of correcting the way things are seen where one engages not only with viewing matters of the physical world accurately but also with the point of gaining access to the ‘forms of ideas’ that are independent of the visible world. Cave dwellers are representative of us people who need to climb our way out of the cave in search of light and the quest is conducted on a gradual basis for any event of proper learning is similar to a meticulous quest which cannot be hurried. This brings stages and identity to a cave dweller who is a metaphor of a person who could reserve the option to stay, leave, and return to the cave. (c) Based on your answer in part â€Å"b†, what does Socrates expect you to do as a result of hearing this story? Be sure you defend your interpretation of the allegory of the Cave. Use examples from the text as needed and provide good reasons to support your interpretation. While Socrates illustrates how indispensable education is in living and what entails systematic acquisition of knowledge which so often is tedious and complex, depending upon the influences that surround a person and his comprehension of them, the philosopher in dialogue expects for the audience to respond by taking concrete action. Having been able to come out of the cave of ignorance, one certainly becomes acquainted to the reality as experienced in the actual so that any prior knowledge is translated with exactness. After this is appropriately carried out, I suppose that Socrates expects the educated individual like me to be accountable for ot hers who are still in the dark and convince them to see the light. In particular application to my life, struggling to get along with a group of people for instance likewise embodies my way out of the cave of illusions wherein while I justify my righteousness over certain matters of dispute, I am blind to the truth about the goodness in others, judging them by my