In America, 43% of marriages end in divorce. Many of these marriages produced a child, with 50% of those ending in divorce.
Divorce can greatly affect a student’s school work and life. Children of divorce are, on average, more likely to drop out of high school and not go to college. But that’s not the case for everyone. Some students who stay in school struggle with their work. People get divorced when their kids are different ages or grades. For some it was farther back and for others it was much more recent.
“My parents got divorced when I was in 8th grade,” Maddie Burton, senior, said.
Custody is also a very big factor in how students behave and how they learn. Custody is different for every family: “It’s split. I go to my other parents’ house every other week,” Burton said.
“I was 15 when my parents got divorced,” Ray Wolf, senior, said.
Some kids cannot see both parents and that can greatly affect their school life, or the other way around. The student might prefer to stay with one parent and have to see both parents.
When and if a parent gets remarried that could also be stressful for a child, new step-parent or step-siblings. Sometimes these arrangements greatly change how a family unit operates.
Overall, divorce is a very hard life circumstance for both parents and their children.
