Effects of Divorce on Adolescents

Research shows that most adolescents think of their parents as hypocrites because of speaking one thing and doing the opposite. Divorcing parents often wish their ending marriage does not bring a divide and further challenges to their adolescent children. Parents hope that after a divorce encounter the family will progress smoothly and that the children would not have to put up with regular conflicts between the parents (Baker 54). Consequently, parents hope their children don’t get to relieve their situation. This is however not the case because the grievances and hostilities that initially broke the marriage are likely to last after the divorce. Divorce catches up to young adults of about 13 years, representing the attachment age and attachment parenting. Some of the common responses of divorce in this age include younger behaviors such as clinging more to the parents for security in the effort to express their grief.

The older adolescents respond through aggression and pushing away from their parents in the aim of gaining more control and asserting more autonomy. Adolescents let their parents do during the divorce because divorce encourages dependence in the child and accelerates independence in adolescents. The psychological engines that propel adolescent growth are increased by parental divorce, which implies that the drive of the psychological engines is often raised. There are three different dynamics that drive adolescent change towards more independence, and this includes differentiation, separation, and opposition, which are better expressed after the parent's divorce. Separation from the family is increased through more reliance on a group of friends. One thing about differentiation in adolescents is that it becomes more pronounced in their expression of individuality, which increases opposition from the parents, with better determination to go their own way.

Adolescents of ages 15-18 are awakening most of their love infatuations and love attachments (Smith 88). This is a vulnerable period and the divorce in the parents could have an enormous impact on their life. There is a recurring fear of abandonment because after divorce adolescents often feel deserted by their parents who are more self-involved and less available after the divorce (Karp 8). Young adults are also faced with the need to control, which aims to keep other people close and complaint to ensure the relationship feels safe. Consequently, there is some form of discomfort with conflict, because it was a conflict that ended the parents' marriage. This might also come because of the ongoing hostility after the divorce of their parents.

Divorce also creates the readiness in adolescents to leave significant relationships when the relationship gets hard, which the parents modeled by their divorce as opposed to working through the difficulties. When facing divorce, it is important to consider its effects on adolescents, this is because the stage presents a critical time in their lives when they start making decisions that influence their present and future. Adolescents are in this case presented with issues on their own sexuality and other issues that arise during their adolescent years. Some of the last things that adolescents need to hear are that their parents are hiding this enormous secret of their divorce. Many adolescents state upon the divorce of their parents that they will not get married and cause this type of pain on their children.