Divorce in America

Each year many American children suffer the divorce of their parents. Children that will be born this year to couples that are married will eventually see their parents’ divorce before they are even grown. Further in the content of my text we will discuss some of the damaging effects of divorce, we will also look at the divorce rates in other countries as well as America, and we will discuss some the issues that are tearing American families apart.

It has been found that children of divorced parents perform more poorly in all of the important subjects in school. They are more likely to repeat a grade and to have higher drop-out rates and not go college or attend and don’t graduate. Families that were not poor before the divorce see their income drop drastically by as much as 50%. A lot of the children that have been involved in a divorced seem to become victims of abuse. Not only do they experience physical abuse, they have a lot of emotional problems that causes them to become involved in crime, and drug abuse. When they experiment with the drugs they tend to become unhealthy and mentally unstable which can sometimes lead to suicide.

Being from a family of divorce parents at an early age I believe it has caused some effects that I am just able to come to grips with. I have often wondered why I am not married and why I had children out of wedlock. “Young women whose parents are divorced have less satisfaction and trust and more conflict in their current dating relationships than do their peers whose parents are still together, study results suggest.” (Melissa Schorr) Now that I see things differently I know remember some of the things my mother use to say such as she should have never married at an early age, and that she should have just had us as a single mother. So now realizing all of this I see that I followed the path that my mother described early on in my life.

Statistics on marriage and divorce show that Americans have gotten lazier and more self-absorbed. This may explain why the U.S. has the highest divorce rate and the highest rate of solo parenting in the Western world. People have the attitude, “If the marriage doesn’t work, I can get a divorce,” because it’s easier to fill out paperwork than to put in the time and effort to make the marriage work. (Krupinsky) In other countries divorce is not as nearly as simple as it is in America. For example, in Europe there is a 0 to 6 year wait period before a divorce is granted. With this being a law in European countries the people has learned to endure each other and not divorce at all. In Africa it has been known that some people have been married for at least 30 years and they have separate bedrooms and do not engage in sexual activities. My nephew father is from the Ebon Tribe in Africa and he even stated that his parents sleep separately and will not even think of being divorced.

I have included a chart below which shows the “Rate of new marriages which end in divorce” (Divorce Magazine) in different countries ranked from the highest percentage to the lowest percentage.

“In Saudi Arabia a woman can be divorced by her without cause, but because of the laws of that country it is almost impossible for a woman to divorce her husband and keep custody of her children.” (Bin Ladin) For this same reason according to laws of some of the other countries they make almost impossible for a woman to file for a divorce. The reason that it is so hard to do is because in these countries women are mostly looked at as second class citizens, and a mother’s love for her children will cause her to endure whatever she has to continue to raise and be with her children.

In every country the laws or types of divorce vary in Japan they have four different types of divorce: Divorce by mutual consent, Divorce by Family Court Mediation, Divorce by Family court Judgment, and Divorce by District Court Judgment. Divorce in Italy was impossible because of the Catholic Church until 1970 the law was amended to allow divorce. It wasn’t until 1997 in Ireland that a divorce was possible and it is still somewhat difficult to do so today. They have certain stipulations or reasons for the divorce to be granted. For people who live in Malta divorce is totally not allowed there, the only thing that is offered to them is separation or to get an annulment. The Philippines is the same way it only allows an annulment. These are just a few that I find to be very controlling of the people not allowing them to divorce. That is why their divorce rate is so low compared to America.

There are many different reasons for a couple in America to want a divorce. The most common reasons are poor or no communication,