Impact Of Residential Parental Divorce On Children

This case presentation will demonstrate the impact of family transitions on changes in emotional and behavioural problems attributed to the effects of parental separation including the risk of illegal behaviour in adolescents. This presentation will discuss the outcomes of marital break-up for children and particularly the impact of contentious divorces on children and how children’s perceptions and experiences can have negative emotional consequences lasting from early childhood into adolescence.

This case presentation will show how a child’s adaptation to divorce is influenced by a number of stressors in addition to developmental and cognitive factors. Some typical life changes that affect child adjustment are: erratic contact or no contact with the non-residential parent, ongoing parental conflict, parental remarriage, and less availability of the residential parent. In the case report I am presenting you will notice that all of these typical life changes
In the case that I am presenting, Paul’s parents had a negative interaction pattern. Paul’s father remarried (i.e. parental remarriage) and had two children and so Paul began to pull away from his father to the point whereby he no longer interacts at all and no longer sees his father (i.e. erratic contact or no contact with, and feeling rejection by, the non-residential parent). This resulted in an increased sense of a lack of belonging to his family system and a feeling of abandonment, which led to anger. Paul feels a sense of guilt that he does not make an effort to see his father. Additionally, alienation from his father means that he no longer has a male role model, or masculine guiding