Marriage and Divorce After-Effects

Marriage creates a warm, secure and affectionate family atmosphere for their children which helps them grow into mature and mentally strong adults.

Over thousands of years, marriage has remained a prominent social institution in all societies around the globe. But until now people have usually married more to honour a social custom than due to personal choice. This was how things were all along and nobody ever questioned the arrangement or thought of challenging the expectations of the society for every adult to get married as soon as he or she reached marriageable age.

It is only in the last five or six decades that people have started examining the validity and dynamics of this institution of marriage and talking about the role their personal rights and freedoms should play in the equation. As a result, personal choice of individuals in matters of marriage has now begun to overshadow social norms and the expectations that the society at large imposes on them.

People now no longer hesitate to postpone their marriage decisions until they are more prepared to accept the huge responsibility. Some decide not to marry at all. Others do not think twice before walking out of their marriages if they are not happy. As a result of awareness of individual rights, there has been a sudden rise in the growth of divorce cases.

In the US alone, as much as 50 percent of all new marriages are destined to end in divorce. This is not a healthy development as it has long-term negative effects on individuals, children and the entire society. An abnormally high rate of divorce in any society can be taken as an indication of the beginning of its end.

Divorce is the official, legal and final end of a marital relationship. It means the total breakup of a family unit. After divorce, family assets are divided between husband and wife. Children have to live with one parent. It is mostly the mother who gets child custody while the father has to content himself with mere visitation rights. The father has to pay maintenance to the wife for her and the childrens upkeep after divorce.

The reasons for divorce may range from physical and mental abuse and financial problems to extra-marital affair, infertility and desertion. Any one of these causes can disturb the peace and tranquillity of the family and result in its disintegration.

Divorce is also an expensive business that creates a big hole in your pocket. Both the partners have to bear the cost of divorce proceedings which comes out to be very costly because most solicitors charge by the hour and the case may drag on with many hearings.

The wealth of the spouses abruptly decreases as all family assets get divided between the two of them. Men have to spend a lot of money every year in paying maintenance to their wife. In case of women, they need to work doubly hard to maintain their living standard by taking a nice-paying job. They also have to hire a babysitter to look after the children.

Statistics show that after divorce there is a decline in the living standard of both husband and wife. In mens case, the decline is about 10 percent while in womens case, it is almost 30 percent decrease in their living standard compared to what it was during marriage. Some women who are not professionally qualified find themselves unable to get a good job and it results in their falling below the poverty line.

Divorced people have also been found to have lower life expectancies than happily married individuals. Their health suffers due to the emotional trauma they go through after divorce. This results in long term negative effects on their physical and mental health. Physically, divorcees are more prone to diseases and their recovery period is also longer.

Emotionally, they suffer from depression as divorce proves to be a major assault on their sense of self-worth. Their productivity levels at work go down. They find it difficult to concentrate on their career. This further decreases their self-esteem. They are afraid to enter into another relationship as they fear it will also have the same result.

Children are the worst sufferers in the break-up of a marital relationship. They need love and affection as well as physical presence of both the parents in their day-to-day life. Children of divorced parents suffer from emotional, health and behavioural problems. They are involved in all types of petty crimes and drug abuse and have higher suicide rates later in their lives.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you would like more information on how to get a quickie Divorce see http://www.quickie-divorce.com