Get on with life. The child may have to move away from friends and into a new school. To some children life before the divorce had not seemed so bad because both parents had concealed their fights and tried to maintain the appearance of a good relationship in front of the children. What a terrible load for a child to carry. The children long for the missing parent.
Boys have trouble in school and socially.
It is not known why boys, at this time, have more difficulty than girls, perhaps because males are more belligerent and aggressive anyway. Perhaps because boys around 5 or 6 are struggling to identify with dad and pull away from mom. Divorced non-custodial fathers, who maintain some contact, socialize but almost never teach or discipline the children. However, even 5 years later , one third still had a wide range of school and behavior problems and they weren't getting any better. Another third had some lingering problems.