Examine whether divorce has a necessary negative impact on children.

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The purpose of this essay is to examine whether divorce has a necessary negative impact on children.  The systematic approach will be to look at arguments against and for and to analysis the findings.

‘People who work with families tend to refer to them as ‘systems’… the individual family members are seen as ‘elements’ or ‘sub-units’.  Whatever happens to one or more of its ‘elements’ can affect the entire ‘system.’

           Herbert, M (1998) Psychology in Action Working with children and their families’ pg.17

According to the researchers who set up a website (liferesources.com/parent.html) regarding their principles on family life: - the first principle stated that a family is more than a collection of people as is a nation or community but has impact, symbol and energy.  Virginia Satir first describes the family as a mobile.  (Whilst, some relationships are more integral to the family functioning others are not).  When a disturbance or force upsets any section of the mobile, the entire mobile begins to react and reverberate to the force.  Tension on one part of the mobile is comparable to the stress or problems particular members or relationships in the family may experience.  When a family member experiences a trauma, the trauma is shared by the family as a whole and the witnesses, often support the person through the difficult time.  Family secrets are generally not family secrets at all, but rather hazy reflections of denial.  A family is multifaceted, dynamic, changing organism.  Family members at any given time have several roles facilitating the functioning and survival of the system.  Baxa J. D. and Shaw S. J. the authors of the  states dysfunctional family relationships, such as conflict, negativity, lack of support, and non-authoritative parenting, exacerbate effects on children from divorce and remarriages as to how they adjust.

‘Family is a social system and all social systems change but there is a resistance to the change, a tendency for things to remain the same or go back to being the same.’

                                                     Eighth principle liferesources.com

The Home Office 2000 emphasizes that families are at the heart of our society, and most of us live in families and we value them because they provide love, support and care.  They educate us and they teach us right from wrong.  Our future depends on their success in bringing up children.

‘…That is why we are committed to strengthening family life.  That is now a widespread recognition that anew approach supporting to the family is needed.  Families are under stress.’

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                                        Home office 2000

However, there are many factors that conflict with this conventional idea of families.  The family also generates fear, violence and lack of either supervision or Maslow’s Hierarchy of primary needs (love, care, shelter and warmth).  An American charity () suggest growing up is not always an easy time for children and teens- many have behavioural, social or learning problems, either at home, at schools or within their communities.

John Bowlby states a child’s strong attachment to its ...

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