Divorce And Preschool Children

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marital separation with regression, anger, tantrums, aggression and anxiety. The Latency age group shows less impact although some symptoms are common such as anxiety and depression. Finally, the adolescence age showed symptoms such as trouble with the law, drugs, sexual acting out and running away. (Hodges and Bloom, 1984)

Because my interest is in the early years of child development I focused mainly on the preschool age children. Hodges and Bloom define this preschool focus as the age period to be between 18 months and 6 years. (1984) Out of these three-age periods the psychoanalytic theory has suggested that the preschool period is particularly the most sensitive time for divorce. Graham Blaine, author of Are Parents Bad For Children, said, �the younger the child the more adverse the impact of divorce�. Right now I am working at a pre-school and there is a child that is five years of age who is in my class. Just recently her parents got a divorce and she has been very effected ...

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�If children are to succeed after divorce, they must be protected from parental conflict and allowed to enjoy close relationships with both parents�. Marriage hostility and parent�s psychological adjustment has been said to have immediate and long-term effects on the adjustment of children from divorce.

Along with the changes in characteristics of the parent-child relationship these stressful life events have been associated with adjustment problems in the child. Some of these stressful life events are variables of environmental changes. Some of the variables include moving to a new neighborhood or school where social skills are required to meet new friends. (Blaine, 1973) This ...

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