Divorce is a life-transforming experience. After divorce, childhood is different. Adolescence is different. Whether the final outcome is good or bad, the whole trajectory of an individual's life is profoundly altered by the divorce experience. Indeed, no one would contest the conclusion that divorce is a source of complex and often enduring pain for children and adolescents.
Children frequently lose access to one parent after a divorce.
Usually it is the father whose role becomes increasingly marginalized. In a large majority of divorces, mothers are awarded custody of their children. Along with the emotional impact of absent fathers, there is the issue of diminished income. Children are almost twice as likely to be living in poverty after divorce as before. Certainly custodial mothers can be less available to their children, with a host of problems that leave them distracted and often depressed.