This paper examines the psychological, behavioral, and educational effects of divorce on children, drawing on Bruce F. Dykeman's research into family conflict resolution and its impact on classroom behavior. It considers key factors — including the child's age, the level of parental conflict, and the quality of the post-divorce environment — that shape how deeply divorce affects a child. The paper also evaluates a territory-level school intervention program and reflects on its strengths and limitations, noting that the study's focus on classroom acting-out behavior overlooks other significant manifestations of distress, such as withdrawal, destructive behavior, or effects stemming from unrelated causes like loss or neglect.
The paper demonstrates source-based critical analysis: it summarizes Dykeman's findings fairly before introducing counterpoints from additional sources. This "agree then qualify" structure — acknowledging what the research shows while pointing out what it fails to address — is a foundational skill in academic writing and literature critique.
The paper opens with a general overview of divorce's impact on children, narrows to Dykeman's specific study and its methodology, presents the study's findings, and then pivots to critical evaluation. The final section addresses gaps in the research, such as overlooked symptoms and alternative causes of classroom disruption. This funnel structure — broad to specific to critical — is well-suited to short analytical essays at the undergraduate level.
Divorce is never an easy experience for anyone — not for the adults involved, and especially not for the children, on whom its effects can take a serious toll. However, certain factors play a significant role in determining the impact of that experience on a child. Age, the way the divorce is handled procedurally, how maturely parents behave throughout the process, and the state of the home environment both before and after the separation are all instrumental in shaping the psychological well-being of the child, whose developing mind is still young enough to form imprints that can last a lifetime (University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, n.d.).
The effects of a family breaking apart can be far-reaching for a growing child, and may include outcomes such as early sexual activity before the age of 16, pregnancy as young as 20, drug and alcohol use, and lasting psychological and social disadvantages (Pow, 2011).
In his article "The Effects of Family Conflict Resolution on Children's Behavior," Bruce F. Dykeman discusses the effects of a conflicted home environment on children and how those effects can extend into their educational lives. He identifies several factors that contribute more or less to the severity of post-divorce effects, including the child's age, the degree of conflict between parents, and — a point he emphasizes strongly — how parents manage their relationship with each other after the divorce.
Dykeman also raises the difficulty of distinguishing between conflict arising from the act of divorce itself and the effects of a "conflictual family relationship" that may have existed long before the divorce took place. It is the ongoing experience of this turmoil that tends to create difficulties in school and academic performance, particularly when compared to children from stable family environments — whether that means a two-parent household or a single but stable home. Even when divorce does occur, if the process is handled smoothly and a stable foundation continues to be provided for the child afterward, there is little reason to expect a visible negative effect on the child's education.
The range of effects does not need to be uniform across all children who experience parental divorce. Sometimes the effects are short-lived, while in other cases they may persist. This largely depends on the attitudes parents adopt when interacting with their former spouses in front of their children, as well as the kind of relationship they maintain with their children after the separation.
Research consistently links high levels of parental conflict — both during and after divorce — to poorer academic outcomes and behavioral difficulties in children. A child navigating instability at home carries that stress into the classroom, where it may manifest as difficulty concentrating, lower grades, or acting-out behavior. The American Psychological Association notes that children's adjustment to divorce is closely tied to the level of ongoing conflict they witness between parents.
The school can play one of the most fundamental roles in recognizing the changes a child may be experiencing due to circumstances at home. Intervention through the school can therefore be among the first and most accessible steps available, particularly through primary and secondary counseling. In more difficult cases, disruptive behavior can be referred to community agencies as a tertiary level of intervention.
The central focus of the study reviewed here is precisely this type of territorial intervention program, which involved 21 students — of whom 15 completed the program — drawn from five junior high schools. All participating students had been displaying signs of the effects of a recently dissolved family. The goal of the program was to understand how reducing the level of family conflict could directly improve a child's classroom performance. As a first step, it was necessary to assess how the family was currently functioning as a unit and how its members communicated with one another.
This assessment was carried out through the completion of a Conflict Tactics Scale at the beginning and again at the end of the six-month program. Teachers also provided periodic responses throughout the intervention period to document changes they observed in the child's behavior.
At the conclusion of the six-month program, results showed significant improvement in children's behavior, including a reduction in verbal aggression and acting-out conduct in the classroom. These findings reinforce the view that structured intervention during a life-altering experience such as divorce must be approached with care and intentionality.
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