Navigating Divorce Impact on Child Psychology

This assignment explores the psychological aftermath of divorce on a child named Sarah. It is divided into four sections: identifying adversities impacting Sarah's behavior, defining the protective environment required for her well-being, specifying vulnerability situations she faces, and delineating resilience factors that could help her overcome depression.

Child Development – Case
Study

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Adversities that may be impacting on Sarah...............................................................................1
Protective environments..............................................................................................................2
Vulnerability...............................................................................................................................3
Resilience....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
There are different type of situation in families which directly impact the health and
mental condition of children. There it can be state that parents play significant role in mentally
and physically growth and development of children (Plomin, 2013). They act as a care taker and
their love and affection make children happy and they can live their life without free because of
protection which they get from their parents. According to the given case, Sarah who is older
child of two children. She is five year old and started going schools. Along with this Sarah with
her brother and mother recently moved to the new area. Her mother does not live with her father
and now she had fresh start after a marital break up. Sarah was unhappy and shy littles girl who
does not mix much with other children. Working as a social care worker it is required to help
Sarah from her toughness. There are different type of theory which assist in her developmental
stage that is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.
Adversities that may be impacting on Sarah
There different adversities which are impacting on Sarah. Sarah is living with her mother
in new area and she has less contact with her father which make her unhappy. Along with this,
Sarah wants to live with both her father and mother but she was unable to express her feeling
with her mother which make her disappoint and unhappy. There are different type of salutation
which Sarah faces at her childhood stage which directly impact her mental condition this make
her live different from other children. In addition to this reason, she was unable to mix up with
other children and feel shy in sharing her feeling with others.
As per Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, the stages of development of a child
with relevance to its external and internal environment are mapped (Masten, 2014). It is quite
clear that Sarah's residential atmosphere was not so normal as it is for normal kids. She had to
face the pain of separation from her father and breaking of her family. The primary stage of
child's inhibitions is determined by the microsystems which also happen to be the immediate
environment (Lerner and Spanier, 2013). Sarah's mental and emotional development is disrupted
due to the consequences faced in immediate environment. Parents and siblings have deep
influence over individual environment. The attitudes and behaviour of a person can fluctuate due
to changes in the behavioural aspects of the people that fall in their immediate environment
(Belsky and Nezworski, 2015).
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It has been stated by Sarah's teacher that she is quite shy and unhappy when compared to
individuals of the same age group. The systems theory has different systems i.e. microsystem,
mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem (Devine and Hughes, 2014). The
reasons behind Sarah's behaviour and personality changes is her lack of connections with the
society or outer world. Since, they have recently moved to a new place, there are less number of
connections developed and which makes her more tender and shy. Hence, this factor of
immediate change in place of residence has caused negative impact over developmental ecology
of Sarah.
The unhappiness experienced by Sarah is also causing a negative impact over Sarah's
personality. Despite of the fact that Sarah's mother has moved quite ahead in her life and
recovered from the loss incurred by inappropriate marriage, it is very difficult for Sarah to move
in such an environment. This signifies that there can be a negative impact over her emotional
quotient due to indirect environmental adversity (Lerner and Spanier, 2013). Furthermore,
changes which have occurred in the family structure in the particular span of time has caused
consecutive adverse effect on Sarah's conditions.
Protective environments
Protective environments are major element when it comes to child development. There is
prevalence of conditions like terrorism, exploitation and abuse in mental, physical or emotional
state. Sarah's development would not have been hindered by the her parent's separation if both
the children were kept in a protective environment. There are certain elements of this type of
surroundings which include legislations, cultural beliefs and customs, life skills, monitoring and
support from local organisations (Justice and et. al., 2015). The protective interventions have to
be provided to every child atleast for some particular period of time so that a relapse is gained for
overcoming an adverse situation.
The experiences catered by an individual in his/her childhood are reflected back in their
actions they take for handling other children. Sarah has just experienced an emotional breakdown
with her mother's separation. Such a crucial step breaks the protective environment of the child.
This further leads to different behaviour as compared to the children that function normally. It is
important for parents and people in the microsystem to recognise and distinguish the changes
(Charlesworth, 2013). This shall help in reducing negative impact of the harsh conditions which
are being experienced by Sarah in such an early age. A child's development is not just the
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complete responsibility of parents and relatives but the entire community and nation contribute
some part. For instance, if a child is subjected to brutal violence and A&OD then the protective
environment is breached and there is adverse effect over the mental and emotional growth of the
person. Furthermore, physical body structure is also disturbed (Hamre and et. al., 2014).
Social settings and certain factorial benefits help in building a protective environment
which stimulates good growth of children. Sarah's condition has not touched the worse point till
now and can be improved if she is also placed in a protective zone. All the components of her
ecological system like the family, friends, teachers, care practitioners, cultural values and
ethnicity should be in coherence with the fact that Sarah requires certain attention in terms of
care (Di Leo, 2014). Over time, situations like divorce or separation become more stable and less
confusing. Sarah has to be provided with effective time so that her psychological development is
not withheld. Situations in which a disequilibrium is experienced by the child should be dealt
with patience and positive perspective as compared to the ways which can hamper development.
Vulnerability
The factor which exposes a person towards harm or abuse in any manner is known as
vulnerability. For Sarah, this factor is quite high because her emotional state is not so stable.
There are very severe conditions which she is being exposed at such a young age. The Window
of Vulnerability is always used by care practitioners and care takers so that precautionary
measures can be taken in the stipulated time for overcoming the vulnerabilities (Devine and
Hughes, 2014). Ecological system of development proposed by Bronfenbrenner depicts that
elements which help in collective growth of a child contain some external factors. It is not
necessary that every factor shall help in positive contribution.
Sarah is vulnerable to getting involved with people of bad influence because of her lack
of interaction with classmates and school students. Family and society need to recognise the
vulnerable factors so that child suffering can be noted down and quickly provided rehabilitation.
Vulnerability also increases when protective environment provided by parents is broken or
removed from a child's development cycle (Charlesworth, 2013). Since, divorce of Sarah's
parents was a cause of her mother's decision to move out, it created a negative impact over her
emotional conditions. When a person is not emotionally stable, then there are chances of
increased vulnerability and subjectivity of the person to experience abuse.
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Child bullying is a common phenomena experienced by individuals that are shy and have
least interaction in the educational set up (Belsky and Nezworski, 2015). Be it at primary level or
in higher education institutions. Sarah's conditions make her vulnerable to child bullying which
definitely accounts for lack of safety at school and emotional retardation. Her mother has to
participate and bring in changes in the lifestyle so that unhappiness of Sarah doesn't get
converted into severe mental disorders like depression and anxiety. The prevalence of vulnerable
conditions deteriorate personal and professional development which ruins the long awaited
future.
Child protection strategies and certain care organisations can be asked for providing
guidance so that state of health for Sarah can be improved. Both Sarah's father and mother have
to realise that their decisions when not taken effectively can cause severe impact over health of
both the children. Facilitating effective communication and social welfare is one of the strategic
steps which help in decreasing vulnerability and increasing the strength of protective
environment.
Resilience
Resilience is referred to be a recovery practice where the patients are provisioned with
some therapeutical treatment for their well being that in turn helps them to come out of any
traumatic situation. It is hereby on considering the given case scenario of Sarah where she is the
older child with a younger sibling, both living with their mother (Carter, Chandler, Stewin,
2002). However, it is after going through a distressing marital break up where Sarah's mother
and father are recently separated on legal grounds. This section is therefore to discourse upon the
resilience of Sarah where she is currently dealing with the most stressful event of life due to the
separation of her mother and father.
Both the parents plays a significant role in the development of their child, where such
events directly hurt the psychology of the child to a great extent. On referring to the present case
of Sarah where she is now required to go through a complete restructuring of their family. This
will in turn necessitate Sarah to cope up with the parental divorce (Justice and et. al., 2015).
However, she is recently facing some difficulties in adjusting with her classmates and teachers in
school and is also showing a lack of interest in participating. In such case, it is important for
Sarah's mother to consider building a close relationship with Sarah. This in turn makes it crucial
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for her mother to seek the assistance of optimism for which she is always required to present
herself in a positive manner.
It is specially at the time of interacting with the children to keep them away from distress.
Also, to create a sense of resilience in children, it is crucial to adopt some encouraging practices
to foster them. This can also be done by generating a sense of competency in Sarah with a
confident outlook towards addressing her abilities (Marie, 2010). Such measures will in turn
assist her to make an assured participation in her school related activities where her mother will
support her to gain a sense of confidence in work by building a close relationship. Also, it has
been observed that depressed people are more assailable to physical traumas where Sarah's
mother must firstly consider to bring out Sarah from such kind of mental state.
For which, she can also consider referring to some factors contributing to the creation of
resilience in children that mainly involves biologic endowments, individual health practices with
personal capability and skills to cope up to further promote a healthy mental development. It is
also on considering some individual factors of child development that includes a major
contribution of stimulation, affection, boost up, sympathy, self effectiveness, liberty, mental
well-being of parents and their style of parenting (Di Leo, 2014). Temperament is also referred
to be another considerate factor that is required to be maintained for a healthy development of a
child like Sarah dealing with a state of depression from parental divorce. All these factors
properly considered by Sarah's mother will help her to build resilience in Sarah.
CONCLUSION
The above report has discoursed upon a given case scenario of Sarah where she is
depressed from the divorce of her parents. This in turn has made some harmful impact on her
psychology that has been discoursed in this report. It is thereby bifurcated into four leading parts
with a foremost section that has revealed the adversities impacting upon the behaviour of Sarah
with another part that has defined the protective environment that is needed to be provisioned to
her. Vulnerability has been specified onto the next part of this report that has identified some
assailable situations for her. Lastly, some factors contributing to the resilience of Sarah to bring
her out of the depressed situation has been delineated.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Belsky, J. and Nezworski, T.M. eds., 2015. Clinical implications of attachment. Routledge.
Charlesworth, R., 2013. Understanding child development. Cengage Learning.
Devine, R.T. and Hughes, C., 2014. Relations between false belief understanding and executive
function in early childhood: A meta‐analysis. Child Development.85(5). pp.1777-1794.
Di Leo, J., 2014. Child development: Analysis and synthesis. Routledge.
Hamre, B. and et. al., 2014. Evidence for general and domain‐specific elements of teacher–child
interactions: Associations with preschool children's development. Child development.
85(3). pp.1257-1274.
Justice, L. M. and et. al., 2015. The dimensionality of language ability in young children. Child
Development. 86(6). pp.1948-1965.
Lerner, R.M. and Spanier, G.B. eds., 2013. Child influences on marital and family interaction: A
life-span perspective. Elsevier.
Masten, A.S., 2014. Global perspectives on resilience in children and youth. Child development.
85(1). pp.6-20.
Plomin, R., 2013. Child development and molecular genetics: 14 years later. Child Development.
84(1). pp.104-120.
Online
Carter, S., Chandler, C., Stewin, L, L., 2002. Building Resilience in Children of Divorce.
[Online]. Availaible through: <http://www.chvbv.ca/building-resilience-in-children-of-
divorce/>. [Accessed on 30th June 2017].
Marie, S., 2010. Risk and Resilience in Children Coping with Parental Divorce. [Online].
Availaible through: <http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/2010/05/risk-and-resilience-in-children-
coping-with-parental-divorce/#.WVXYV7uKgnQ>. [Accessed on 30th June 2017].
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