Divorce and the Emotionally Abused Child

Abstract

At least 50% of American marriages that have begun since 1970 have ended, or will end, in divorce. People have referred to divorce in America as an epidemic, and in some countries the ratio is even higher. Divorce without children may be painful and emotionally disturbing to the parties involved, but when children are present the matter becomes even more complicated and difficult to manage. More children are abused through the process of divorce with attendant legal procedures of custody and visitation than are ever abused by the “child-battering parents” (Kempe et al. 1962).