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Titled: Social Effects Resulting from the High Divorce Rate
Social Effects Resulting from the High Divorce Rate
Article Summary: Never before in the history of western civilisation has divorce been as high as it is now. Society saw a huge jump in the divorce rate in the decades following the Second World War and by the 1980s, one out of every two marriages that were getting solemnised were destined to end in marital separation. This shocking statistics is as true today as it was twenty years ago.
There are many reasons for the rapid growth in divorce rate over the years, such as liberation and emancipation of women, equal educational and job opportunities available to them on par with men, rise of individualism, the increased importance of personal rights, the loosening of the grip of social conscience over the society, the disappearance of the social stigma attached to divorce, easy remarriage opportunities and a drastic relaxation in divorce laws which today makes it possible for willing partners to finalise their separation in as little as three months.
While a high divorce rate may be quite liberating and enabling at an individual level, it is going to prove to be a disaster in the long term for the society as a whole. For thousands of years, marriage and the institution of family have been the basic building block of human civilisation throughout the world. With the dilution of marriage as a lifelong arrangement, there is a danger of the entire society degenerating into chaos sooner or later. This is because the consequences of a high divorce rate last for generations and accumulate over time till the chickens come home to roost. The social damage inflicted by an abnormally high number of divorces is incalculable.
When divorce occurs in a family, it is the children who suffer the most because they are soft, emotionally vulnerable and easily hurt. After parental separation, child custody is usually handed over to the mother. The father moves out to find another home. He is granted only visitation rights and gets to meet the children only occasionally. As a result, the kids grow up without the significant presence of a father figure who would have supervised, guided and disciplined them. This has negative consequences for their emotional and psychological development. The boys are particularly vulnerable to long-term absence of father.
Children from single-parent families carry deep emotional scars and lose faith in human relationships. They are incapable of forming stable and long-term friendships and relations when they grow up and often indulge in child abuse and violence against women. This is a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. It ensures that divorce runs in a family over generations.
Children of divorce have a much higher chance of turning out delinquents and indulging in petty crime such as stealing, picking up fights, physical abuse, bullying and cruelty toward animals. Many of them start lagging behind in their studies and take to drug or alcohol abuse. Such children when they grow up turn out to be chronic underachievers in life and poorer than they should be because of low academic grades and a lack of self-confidence. Girls, being more emotionally vulnerable than boys, get more depressed, have suicidal tendencies and often become teenage mothers.
A high rate of divorce results in a large number of step parents and step children existing in the society as adults divorce and remarry many times. Step children are at a higher risk of being abused emotionally and physically from their step parents compared to kids from intact families. This imposes a tremendous psychological cost on the latter.
Divorce affects the emotional and physical health of adults too. It leads to feelings of anger, guilt, depression, insecurity and revenge. This caustic cocktail of emotions often results in a nervous breakdown or a death wish and people often take to alcohol and drugs. Many victims of divorce have to seek professional help to come out of the pit they have dug themselves into.
Quite a few people vow never to enter a marital relationship again. Instead, they look for casual flings or live-in relationships to spare them the emotional pain of separation. These unstable arrangements can never provide a homely and secure atmosphere to the children or be a substitute for marriage. Divorce leads to single mothers and it is usual to see them slip below poverty line after separation, especially those who have never done a job or lack the qualifications to get one.
With such a high divorce rate, newly married partners are apprehensive that the relationship may not work out. As a result, they tend to delay having babies as long as they can till they are sure of the stability of their marriage. Age affects fertility of both men and women and it becomes harder to conceive for the couples in their mid-thirties or beyond.
The high rate of divorce is thus a grave threat to social peace and stability in the medium to long run.
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
About the Author:
James Walsh
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you would like more information on how to get a quickie Divorce see http://www.quickie-divorce.com
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