Running Head: DIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 1
\nA Person\u2019s Psychological Well-being is not affected by Divorce
\nYixiao Song
\nVirginia Commonwealth University
\nDIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 2
\nA Person\u2019s Psychological Well-being is not affected by Divorce
\nIntroduction
\nDivorce is the deliberate, lawful dissolution of marriage (Cooney & An, 2002).
\nAccording to a report in the Business Insider, divorce rate is high in the United States at 53%,
\nand in Europeans countries such as Spain, Luxembourg, Hungary, Portugal, and the Czech
\nRepublic, with rates exceeding 60% (Engel, 2014). The highest divorce rate is in Belgium – an
\noverwhelming 70% and the lowest at 3% in Chile (Engel, 2014). The majority of research has
\nconcentrated on illustrating the adverse and traumatic effects of divorce, more so on children
\n(Wallerstein, 1991). These studies link divorce to long-term psychological problems (Kalter,
\n1987). Research also suggests that divorce is related to psychological distress, social isolation,
\neconomic hardship, and dangerous health repercussions, and therefore causes long-term adverse
\neffects on the physical health of the divorced couple (Lorenz et al., 2006). Indeed, there is a
\ngeneral association between divorce and negative psychological well-being. However, results
\nfrom the majority of research are stereotyped, and the effects are not as significant as oftenalleged
\n(Kalmijn, 2005). This paper establishes the point of view that divorce does not negatively
\naffect an individual\u2019s psychological well-being.
\nDiscussion
\nWhen talking about the negative effects of divorce on individuals \u2013 especially children,
\na lot of research states that divorce does hurt children. Susan Gadoua (2009), in her book,
\nContemplating Divorce suggests that it is not the actual divorce that harms children, but rather
\nthe fighting between the parents that causes psychological harm. In contrast to the widely
\nbelieved notion that divorce negatively harms individuals and children, the fact is that divorce
\nDIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 3
\nalso has a positive impact on them. Single parents tend to be more intimately involved with their
\nchildren \u2013 the separated spouse tends to pay more attention to the child\u2019s desires and makes
\nefforts to spend quality time with them (Corcoran, 1997). A research conducted by Matthijs
\nKalmijn and Christiaan W. S. Monden about whether the negative impact of divorce on a
\nperson\u2019s well-being is reliant on the marital quality, offers evidence, though limited, that divorce
\nfrom a poor marriage has a less adverse effects on an individual\u2019s well-being (Kalmijn &
\nMonden, 2006). Thus, the quality of marriage itself is responsible for the individual\u2019s negative or
\npositive psychological well-being. Divorce from an unsavory marriage may even affect
\nindividuals positively as it offers escape from constant conflict, allowing self-reflection and selfhealing,
\nwhich result in a happier and healthier lifestyle (Gross, 2014).
\nIn an article from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, aiming to discover
\nwhether marriage positively impacts the psychological well-being of a person, empirical
\nevaluation and data used revealed that it is the quality of the marriage and not the marital status
\nthat links marriage to positive psychological health (Gove, Hughes, & Style, 1983). This
\nobservation supports the proposed fact that it is not divorce but a poor marriage that negatively
\naffects the individual\u2019s psychological well-being (Williams, 2003). In the book, Separating
\nTogether: How Divorce Transforms Families, the authors examine 100 divorcing families. The
\nbook presents detailed case studies, clearly presented data, excerpts from interviews, and
\nscrutiny of mother-child interactions, and argues that the traditional perceptions of divorce are
\ntoo negative, personalized, and too universalizing in an experience that differs for men, women,
\nand children (Stewart et al., 1997). According to the book, divorce may even offer the possibility
\nof personal growth (Stewart et al., 1997).
\nDIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 4
\nIn a study to infer the consequence of divorce on children and adults, Paul Amato
\n(2000), concludes that divorce does benefit some people; it causes some to experience a shortterm
\ndecrement in psychological well-being, while others may face a long-term downward
\ntrajectory. However, the study also suggests that effects of divorce are based on the individual’s
\npsychological predisposition and certain contingencies (Amato, 2000). The book Life-Span
\nDevelopment and Behavior states that a divorce has a crisis period where the individual is
\naffected on a short-term basis, but many parents and children exhibit significant improvements
\nand adjustment following the period after the divorce process (Baltes, Featherman, & Lerner,
\n2014).<\/p>\n
DIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 5
\nReferences
\nAmato, P. (2000). The consequences of divorce for adults and children: Journal of Marriage and
\nFamily, 62(4), 1269-1287. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1741-3737.2000.01269.x
\nBaltes, P., Featherman, D., & Lerner, R. (2014). Life-span development and behavior (10th ed.,
\npp. 111-113). New York and London: Psychology Press.
\nCooney, Teresa M.; An, Jeong Shin. Divorce: trends and consequences. Encyclopedia of Aging.
\n2002. Retrieved June 17, 2016, from Encyclopedia.com: http:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/
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\nIR=T
\nGadoua, S. (2009). Divorce doesn’t harm children – parents fighting harms child. Psychology
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\nDIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 6
\nGross, G. (2014). 4 Good things to come out of divorce. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 June
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\nmarriage, and psychological well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44(4),
\n470. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.2307\/1519794<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Running Head: DIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 1 A Person\u2019s Psychological Well-being is not affected by Divorce Yixiao Song Virginia Commonwealth University DIVORCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING 2 A Person\u2019s Psychological Well-being is not affected by Divorce Introduction Divorce is the deliberate, Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}