Evaluation of “Divorce Causes and Consequences”

1 Evaluation of “Divorce: Causes and Consequences” Having a lot of friends with divorced parents, I have always wondered what the true effects of divorce can have on a family and others around them. Although I have not experienced divorce at a young age, rather at an older age, I still wonder why it happens. In this article “Divorce: Causes and Consequences,” issued in 2009 by the American Journal of Family Therapy, the author evaluates how divorce can have harmful effects on all members of families. With proper research, I have found that this source provides several answers to my research questions that will help me in the final process of writing my essay. In the research, Clarke-Stewart stated that children who have parents that are divorced are more likely to skip school, drop out of high school, and get pregnant at an early age. This is due to an abundance of factors such as children not getting the emotional and psychological help that they need at a young age, so it does not build up over time. On the other hand, there are several reasons why divorce happens. One reason is due to a change in social and cultural factors such as a change in the role of family and shifts in traditions. Also, being married at a young age, and conceiving a child can cause a shift in how a couple interacts with each other. The purpose of this article is to inform an audience of families that have gone through a divorce and have experienced some of these personal issues. This information will be great to use within my essay because it provides specific reasons why divorce happens and who it effects in the end. Throughout the article, there is the use of rhetorical devices such as ethos and logos. Clarke-Stewart uses ethos to try and inform the audience that divorce can affect a family. Although with his use of ethos some of his points are convincing there is some bias to this article. From the start, he makes the assumption that whenever a divorce happens, a child is automatically going to turn out to become a troublesome person because they aren’t in a stable 1 2 environment anymore. This is not necessarily true because a divorce can impact a person in a positive way, and make things much better between parents and the child. On the other hand, Stewart uses logos to support his claims that children can be negatively impacted. “In studies of nationally representative samples, children from divorced families are twice as likely to receive psychological help, to skip school or get suspended, to get in trouble with the police, to drop out of high school, to get pregnant as a teenager, to be out of work in their later teens and early twenties, to see their own marriages end in divorce, and to experience clinically significant psychological distress and depression childhood and adulthood” (445). Clarke-Stewart uses both of these rhetorical devices to contrast each other, but this information will help me with my research to argue the two sides of divorce from a rhetorical viewpoint. The article also talks about how couples should get counseling to help prevent a divorce from happening since it would cause a lot of turmoil within a family. Clarke states “That is, the practitioner should not adopt a general position of “saving the marriage.” However, there must like- wise be open-mindedness to recognizing and dealing with the full range of effects created by divorce” (446). Clarke-Stewart argues that it is up to the couples to decide where there are faults in their marriage and make a decision to end the marriage or to continue and get the proper help to save the marriage. With both of these decisions, counseling won’t always be the best alternative and in some cases, divorce is the best option. I agree with this argument because it is this information will help me in my research because I can argue that even with professional alternatives divorce still can’t be prevented. Overall, I believe this source by Clarke-Stewart is very valid and current and will help me better my research on the topic of divorce. He seems to be knowledgeable about the topic of divorce and offers accurate insights throughout his argument. Throughout this article, it is clear 2 3 that divorce has serious effects on everyone within a family. Some of the effects may cause personal problems with a person and some may be beneficial. Although divorce can’t be changed it is still important that families get the proper counseling, and care so that there are no psychological, or emotional problems that occur later on in the person’s life. 3