Victims
One study found that 18 months after a divorce, children have a rate of sudden, serious psychological problems comparable to “victims of natural disaster.” Sixty-five percent of the children—who had been functioning well before the divorce—couldn’t concentrate in school, couldn’t eat or sleep properly, couldn’t make friends, were depressed, withdrawn or hostile. Even ten years after a divorce , over 40 percent of these young people still had no set goals, a limited education and a sense of hopelessness about their lives. The study’s author concludes, “Almost half of the children of divorce enter adulthood as worried, underachieving and sometimes angry young men and women.”