cause and effect essay

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Causes and Effects of Divorce
“DIVORCE”-the sound of this word gives married people and children emotional distraught which at times might be irreversible. The essence of marriage is for two lovers to come together and build an everlasting bond that is only broken in the event of death. However, as years have gone by, it has become more apparent that married couples are sometimes not capable of maintaining their union, hence, they opt to separate as a means of coping with marital challenges. The process of divorce is quite tedious and the effects of it might be extremely detrimental to the separating partners and children. This paper, therefore, looks not only at the effects of divorce such as financial losses and psychological challenges but also the causes of divorce which include the breakdown of communication between the spouses, infidelity, and financial challenges.
First, divorce is precipitated by the breakdown of communication between the couples. When couples are unable to have a good relationship, they start hiding their feelings from each other leading to constant misunderstandings and quarrels and consequently divorce. Secondly, financial problems also lead to divorce. Arkes points that despite the calls for gender equality, gender roles still define marriages, and when one spouse is unable to meet their roles, such as the man being unable to financially support the family, there is high chance that the family will break (26). Finally, infidelity has also been identified as a major precursor to the elevated divorce rates.

Cases of infidelity put a lot of strain on the spouses’ trust for each other, paving way for family dissolution (Arkes 35). In the end, divorce brings about devastating impacts to the couples and children. First, according to Härkönen, both the parents and children are exposed to psychosocial challenges such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem (310). Another prevalent impact is that of financial losses that result from the division of resources upon marriage dissolution. Finally, issues of co-parenting put a strain on the children’s social and psychological development (Härkönen 315).
In conclusion, divorce is a prevalent phenomenon the society today and just as it has a variety of effects it also has many dominant causes. Some of the main causes of divorces pointed out in this paper include the breakdown of communication between the spouses, infidelity, and financial problems. Upon divorce, many psychological issues affect the divorcees and their children, and the former are also bound to incur a lot of financial losses.
Work Cited
Arkes, Jeremy. “The temporal effects of divorces and separations on children’s academic achievement and problem behavior.” Journal of Divorce & remarriage 56.1 (2015): 25-42.
Härkönen, Juho. “Divorce: Trends, patterns, causes, consequences.” The Wiley-Blackwell companion to the sociology of families (2014): 303-322.