While divorce can negatively impact all involved parties, children are often the most vulnerable. They also have little to no control over their situation, and that can lead to all sorts of problems later on down the line, such as social isolation, emotional or behavioral issues, and poor academic performance. Yet, when done under the right circumstances, with the child's best interests in mind, divorce can sometimes benefit children. In the following sections, you can learn more on how to effectively balance your child's best interests against your own needs to achieve the latter situation.

Is Divorce Bad for Kids? 

For decades, parents were led to believe that divorce is inherently “bad” for children. Yet, as time passes, research shows it is not necessarily the divorce process that negatively impacts children, so much as it is their home environment.

Despite all the changes to divorce and structural changes to the American family, statistics indicate that mothers still tend to receive more parenting time with their children when the courts get involved. Unfortunately, studies suggest this could negatively affect children. In fact, one recent study found that children often fare better when their parents have near equal parenting time allotments. Learn more about how you can protect your child's best interests in a divorce case, and how an experienced divorce lawyer can help.

A Closer Look at the Study

Published in the Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, the recent study examined the stress level of 800 children from Sweden who had either one parent in their life or both. The results of the two groups were then compared. Overall, researchers determined that children experienced several bouts of stress throughout the week when they were deprived of one parent. In contrast, the children who had time with both parents reported less stress than their peers.