Chapter Two

Literature Review
Introduction

This chapter reviews existing literature on the effects of divorce on children, with a focus on
global findings and regional insights applicable to the Somaliland context. The purpose is to
build a theoretical and empirical foundation for the current study by examining previous
research related to psychological, social, and educational impacts of divorce on children under
18.

Definition of Divorce

Divorce is a painful challenge that faced by the married couple which is a separation between
the husband and wife to end their marriage. According to Meyer (2017) a divorce is a legal
action between married couple to end their marriage relationship. It can be referred to as
dissolution or dysfunctional of marriage and way to ends the marriage before the death of
either spouse. The dissolution of a marriage is often traumatic and can affect the children with
parent’s relationship. According to one study, the child will be more antisocial when they are in
the dysfunctional families “the higher the level of family dysfunction prior to divorce, the
greater the reduction in child antisocial behavior after the divorce”. According to United States
show that people who divorced individuals compared with married individuals, report less
happiness, more symptoms of depression, stress, more social isolation, more negative life
events, and more health problem such as mental and physical issues. (Bierman, Fazio & Milkie
(2006) Hetherington (2003) Wood, Goesling, & Avellar (2007).

There are many cases that can lead to divorce such as financial problem, lack of
communication, constant arguing, and lack of intimacy and sexual or physically abuse. All of
these stressful features of divorce can take a cumulative toll on people’s physical and mental
health (Graham, Christian, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2006). Consequently, there are many
disadvantages associated with being divorced appear such as negative effects on the person
itself, extended families and their children. For example, Wade and Pevalin (2004) was found
that individuals in the United States who separated or divorced had poorer mental and health
prior to marital failure. Furthermore, divorce will effect on individual functioning, families going
through divorce experience changes in dyadic and overall family relationship level. Anderson &
Sabatelli (2011), Emery (2011). To sum up everything divorce can make a lot of changes that
can affect the family members and the person itself.
Effects of divorce towards the children itself

1. The effects of divorce towards the children’s psychology.

Divorce is an increased risk factor for children to develop and experience psychological
difficulties. Studies support that children from divorced families displays a higher level of
depression and anxiety (Warner & Mahoney, 2009). Moreover, children who experience
parental divorce tend to have more emotional, social, behavioural, and learning
problems than individuals from intact homes (Cohen, 2002; Nair & Murray, 2005; Weir,
2006). Children with divorced parents tend to display greater levels of anxiety,
depression, anger, and antisocial behaviour than individuals whose families remain
intact (ClarkeStewart, 2006; Simons, Lin, Gordon, Conger, & Lorenz, 1999; Strohschein,
2005). When parents split and one goes away, it’s as if children lose a part of
themselves. It’s normal for kids to feel angry, sad, confused, and even responsible in
some ways. Feelings of anger, sadness, betrayal, loss, and sometimes rejection and
abandonment are all part of the trauma of divorce. For many teens, these feelings
persist even though their parents divorced 4, 8, or even 10 years ago (Gaskins, 1996).

2. The effects of divorce toward the children’s social development.

Amato (2003) researched another researcher named Judith Wallerstein stated that
children who came from divorced families tend to have lack of interpersonal skills as
compared to parents that have been continuously married and have been good model
to their children. For children whose parents are divorced and do not have such a
model, tend to also have issues with intimacy and commitment. The ramifications of
divorce go beyond the child’s wellbeing during his or her adolescence and stretch far
into his or her adulthood and thus the negative habits, notions, relationship skills, and
ideals are passed onto a next generation where they continue to make the same
mistakes and continue the pattern or cycle for the next generation and so on
(Wallerstein, 2005). In addition, Tremblay, Nagin, Seguin, Zoccolillo, Zelazo, & Boivin
(2004) found the following: most children have initiated the use of physical aggression
during infancy, and most will learn to use alternatives in the following years before
entering primary school. Humans seem to learn to regulate the use of physical
aggression during the preschool years. Those who do not, seem to be at highest risk of
serious violent behavior during adolescence and adulthood. The most typical form of
aggression in males is physical aggression (Underwood, Galen, & Paquette 2001). The
most typical forms of aggression in females include the following: indirect aggression,
relational aggression, and social aggression (Underwood, Galen, & Paquette, 2001).
3. The effects of divorce towards the children’s education.

Divorce can potentially cause psychological distress in children during the time of
divorce. This can manifest itself in changes in mood, sleep patterns, appetite, ability to
focus, performance in school, as well as, a myriad of other outcomes (Warner &
Mahoney, 2009). Moreover, school-aged children are at greater social and academic
risk. They commonly react with depression, withdrawal, grieving, fear, fantasies of
responsibility for the break-up and of possible reconciliation, anger, shame, decreased
school performance, a sense of loss or rejection, and conflicts over which parent to
express loyalty to (Ashley Stapleton, 2009). Portnoy (2008) argued that children from
divorced families obtained lower scores on academic achievement, emotional
adjustment, social interaction, and behavioural measures.

4. The effects of divorce towards the children’s future relationship

Children from divorced families also endure fears, anxieties, love and commitment
issues that affect them in their future relationships (Kim Abel, 2012). Those with
parental divorce reported lower levels of marital commitment and more pro-divorce
attitudes, indicating that attitudes towards marriage and divorce are beliefs that are
partially created even before young adults enter into relationships (Eliyahu Melen,
2017). For girls, this could translate into not selecting the best suitor to aid in forming
and raising a family or for the woman to select a man to try and fill in the missing
desires, needs and wants that were not met by her own father during her childhood or
adolescence as a result of a divorce (Kim Abel,2012). However, for boys this could result
in not understanding the role or need for a father figure in raising children and
ultimately could result in a man beginning a family and then abandoning it as he saw his
father do to his own family, not realizing the ramifications of said actions and ultimately
passing on this flawed and negative information to a new generation (Kim Abel,2012).

The challenges that the children face after their parents had divorced.

[Link] to travel from one parent’s home to another.

When the children need to keep moving from one place to another, the children
need to adapt with the environment at the new place, Amato and Cheadle (2005)
also stated that along with the economic hardship come the stressful events, such as
moving to new neighborhoods, changing schools, parental remarriage, merging or
blending of families and even the possibility of additional parental divorces. This
issue causes the children to feel “caught in the middle” during or after their parent’s
divorce, according to Amato and Afifi’s (2006) research shows the emotional and
behavioral problems of children who feel caught in the middle can be directly
related to their parent’s divorce. This shows the children that need to travel from
one parent’s home to another can be challenging to the children’s life.

2. The parent who gain custody of the children may restrict them from seeing the
other parent

Usually in this case the mother will get the custody and the children may have the
likelihood to barely see their father. This statement is supported by Thiong’o Erniest
Karanja (2016), he stated that in most cases, children will live with their mothers and
they will see their father much less .Furthermore, there are five theoretical
perspectives used to explain this variability; the loss of the noncustodial parent, the
adjustment of the custodial parent, interparental conflict, economic hardship, and
the cumulative effect of stressful life changes, (Warner & Mahoney, 2009). Some of
the reason of the mother will not allow their child to meet their own father because
due the financial purposes like the father don’t give the “nafkah” to child. According
to Kalil and Ryan (2010), the economic circumstances of families decline after
divorce, especially among mother-headed families.

3. Fighting their own mental thought

Divorce can give the main challenges toward the children involving their mental
thought because of the external stress and pressure from their own parents that can
lead to the depression, so the studies supported that children from divorced families
display a higher level of depression and anxiety (Warner & Mahoney, 2009). The
children of divorce’s family tend to get mental health easily because of their own
surrounding and lack of loves. This statement is supported by Sandler, Wheeler &
Braver (2013) that another issue frequently faced by children of divorce is an
increase in mental health challenges attribute to the decreased involvement of
parents following divorce. These findings show that children are not immune to the
effects of divorce and can suffer severe and lasting consequences if left untreated.
According to Fabricius and Luecken (2007) who studied the physical health
correlation for children of divorce, the findings indicate that more stress-related
physical illnesses developed for children in divorce settings than those in the control
group.

Way for the children of divorce overcome their challenge s

The divorce child usually will feel stressed and depressed at first when it comes
to knowing their parents have been divorced. This is because they cannot accept
of what is happening and they usually overthink of what will happen with their
lives in the future. According to Darton (2012), keeping in touch with people can
help you feel a bit more grounded and sometimes get things more in
perspective. Try a short phone call to a close friend or relative, or if you cannot
manage it, just and email or text message. Let people you trust and know about
you to improve your mood. This is one way of obtaining support you need while
you work to feel better. They can help you to figure out solutions to some of the
problems you have been dealing with.

2. Enjoy yourself.

Find time to recover yourself. Do whatever that you like, do not deprive yourself
of things you would like to do just because before this you did it with your
parents and this time you need to do it alone. It may seem awkward at first, but
go for a walk, to a concert, or to a movie and having fun (Narang, 2014). Find an
activity that's completely different from the things causing you stress also is a
great way to get away from pressure. If stress is making you feel lonely or
isolated, shared hobbies can also be a good way to meet new people. (Boyd,
2015).

3. Take care of your physical health.

Even in distress, we also need to take care of ourselves. Get regular exercise, eat
nourishing food, and maintain a healthy weight. This is to ensure that our health
is in good condition to do our daily routine (Vierck, 2003). This statement was
supported by Darton (2012), he stated that regular exercise can be very effective
in lifting your mood and increasing your energy levels, and it is also likely to
improve your appetite and sleep. Physical activity stimulates chemicals in the
brain called endorphins, which can help you to feel better.

4. Focus on addressing your problems instead of feeling helpless about them.

Most of the divorce children may feel hopeless after their parents’ divorce and
this makes them started to do useless things such as involve with drugs,
promiscuity and even some of them commit suicide because of pressure. They
should not have to do all that instead they should think on how to improve their
relationship with both parents and stay focused on their own lives for the future
success. Vierck (2003), stated that think of them as “challenges or tests” rather
than as insurmountable obstacles. Other than that, stay focused on positive
things and avoid negative self-talk such as “I cannot do that without my
parents”, just think that you can do that and start do it because negative self-talk
will make you feel more stress.