I’m a child development major and in my field there are various trends that are popular today. I chose divorce as my trend to show how much it actually affects the development of the children. “Half of all divorces involve minor children.” ("The impact of," 2011) Divorce is a serious and major problem when it involves children. These children often are unable to fit in. “Of all children born to married parents this year, fifty percent will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach their 18th birthday.” (Blotta, 2010) 60 percent of children were born to married couples in 2008 meaning half of children of the 60 percent will be experiencing their parents divorce by the year 2026. ("marriage trends," 2009) This is a lot of families that will be torn apart and a lot of children that will have to go through emotional, psychological, and mental problems.

The most affected by divorce are the children. Children in most instances are too young to understand or process what is going on. In turn they start to express there feelings negatively by misbehaving. There are many reasons a child starts misbehaving because of a divorce and some of there can be for reasons such as insecurity, loss of self esteem, repressed feeling of loss and anger. Often times divorcee children feel ashamed and fear abandonment, studies have shown this negatively affects their performance in school compared to their peers. Misbehaving actually starts on average two years before the divorce and five years following remarriage.

The relationships between mother and child as well and father and child are disrupted and children can have the feeling of having to choose sides because they are in the middle of the parents conflicts. The mother is more times than not awarded custody. “In the case of divorce, eighty-five percent of children from divorced homes live with their mothers.” ("The impact of," 2011) Many times the father is only awarded visits here and there. “Forty percent of children growing up in America today are being raised without their fathers.” (Blotta, 2010) Reports have shown when a father is present more often than not after a divorce, children have higher self esteem, higher psychological scores, and misbehavior is lower.

Divorcee children are able to eventually move on and live normal lives “But, studies show that adult children of divorce tend to earn less income, obtain less education, have more troubled marriages, weaker ties with parents, and display more psychological distress symptoms.” ("The impact of," 2011)

In 1970 90 percent of children were born to married couples. ("marriage trends," 2009) As we can see more people are having children before they are married than 30 years ago. I think this has a lot to do with the rise is divorce rates. People waited longer before having children. We live in a world where everything is at our fingertips. Basically we live in a world of instant gratification; we make decisions too quick and complain too often if we do not receive what we want now. The longer you wait the better because the more likely it will last. I think that if two people or parents