Divorce

Stephanie Coontz's article discusses the effects divorce has on children. She notes that children in divorced and remarried families are "more likely to drop out of school, exhibit emotional distress, get in trouble with the law, and abuse drugs or alcohol" than children growing up in a family that consists of two biological parents. She makes a clear distinction, however, saying that not all children from divorced families have these behavioral and academic problems, but that there are more children of divorced parents that exhibit these problems than children from two-parent families. Coontz takes into account other coexisting factors that can affect the child along with divorce. She argues that poverty, financial loss, low maternal education, school relocation, or a prior history of marital conflict can have negative affects on the child that are not caused solely by divorce. Family income has a great effect on children. Also, as far as academic effects, the child is more affected by his/her mother's education than by the mother's marital status. Researchers have also found that problems among children of divorced or remarried families actually exhibit the less problems than children that remain living in a conflict-ridden married family. The problems associated with divorced children in fact exist prior to divorce and are caused by other factors than marital status. This is how Coontz accounts for the variability in the effects of divorce on children.

According to Furstenberg and Cherlin, the short-term and long-term effects of divorce on children vary according to different factors. They cite age as having an effect on how the child immediately responds to the divorce. Pre-schoolers are often bewildered and frightened because they have a limited understanding of why they no longer live with both parents. They tend to view things in a self-centered way causing them to blame some action they did as the reason for the parent leaving. Older children, who have a better comprehension of the situation, tend to get angry at one of the parents and blame them for the dissolving of the family. Researchers describe the first two years after the divorce as the "crisis time" where many negative short-term effects occur including anxiety, anger and shock. Furstenberg and Cherlin discuss the differences in short-term effects between girls and boys. The short-term effects discussed are often caused by the depression and frustration of the mother from having ended a marriage and stress from taking on the role that the father left behind. As a result, different behavioral problems occur. There are two types described, externalizing disorders, which result in outward behavior problems directed towards others such as aggression and disobedience, and internalizing disorders that are directed inwards in the forms of depression and anxiety. Studies show that boys, whether in disrupted or intact families, tend to exhibit external behavioral problems, especially aggression and disobedience. Girls, on the other hand, have seemed to exhibit less bad behavior after a familial disruption, although the results have been fairly inconsistent. Researchers are careful when saying that girls are less affected by divorce because they could just internalize their problems more than boys in the form of depression or low self-esteem. They also sometimes attribute the difference to the fact that in most cases boys reside with their mothers and are more likely to encounter conflict with them.

Even less is known about the variations in long-term effects of divorce on children. On the whole, most children and parents recover from the immediate crisis time within a few years, with the children returning to normal development. There is, however, some variation in the long-term effects that appear in certain children. Furstenberg and Cherlin seem to think some researchers overexaggerate these long-term effects, though. They also consider the fact that the children would most likely exhibit the same problems even if the conflict-ridden marriage had remained intact. Studies have shown both that children of divorced families tend to misbehave in school and that also a majority of them do not misbehave, so it depends on your persective. Despite the inconsistent results, researchers have cited certain factors that affect long-term and short-term effects. The way in which the custodial parent functions as a parent after the divorce is very influential on the structure, discipline, coping, and caring within the family. The extent to which the mother and father continue to conflict with one another also influences the effects. If conflict continues it can cause more distress and anger among the children. Despite inconsistent findings, some researchers also believe the relationship that the child maintains with the non-custodial parent is another factor.

Carr's article on spousal bereavement discusses major factors that influence how a spouse grieves their partner's death. The three most important factors are the age of the husband and wife, how the spouse died, and what the couple's life was like before the death occurred. The age of the couple at the time of death has pretty obvious implications. Understandably, older people view death as a natural culmination of life, whereas the death of a younger person may be viewed as a premature end to a life not yet fulfilled. Also, older people tend to have siblings and peers that are experiencing death as well, and can relate and be comforted by them in both their times of need. On the whole, older people experience lower levels of emotional reactions to the death of their spouses. The cause of death often correlates with the age of the deceased spouse. Often times older people die of long-term illnesses. The care of the illness is very draining on the other spouse, physically, mentally, and emotionally. As a result, many spouses feel the death of their extremely ill partners as a relief of a burdensome task of taking care of them. In contrast, a sudden death does not have this same effect. Lastly, the couple's life previous to the death of the spouse affects the extent of bereavement. Unhappy, stifling marriages tend to lead to less bereavement. Spouses that were less dependent of their partners show less signs of distress and grief. In contrast, widows and widowers whose happy, healthy, marriages were ended by the death of their spouse show greater difficulty in coming to terms with their losses. Because men and women react to marriage in different ways, they subsequently respond to bereavement in different ways. Men and women are also rewarded by marriage in different ways, effecting their response to the loss of their partners. The division of labor between men and women also affect their responses to the death of their spouses. Widows often take on a heavier economic burden after the death of their husbands. Men often take on a heavier domestic burden seeing as women tend to do most housekeeping, cooking, etc. Clearly, many different factors affect the way and extent to which a spouse grieves the loss of his/her partner.