Divorce Hurts Children, Even Grown ones by Jann Gumbiner

Critical Analysis Essay

        The article “Divorce Hurts Children, Even Grown Ones” by Jann Gumbiner Ph.D. posted in Oct 31, 2011 is sequential and clear because the author presents the example that parents’ divorce had lifelong effects on her and make her have psychic trauma. However, although the parents’ divorce has lots of disadvantages, it is not categorical that divorce can effect on all children.

        The main point of the article is divorce always harmful for children. She reported some examples to approve her mind. For example, the kid from a single-parent home is the shame of going to school. And it also has long-term consequences for grown children.

        The article is well-written and excellently captioned, however, there are a few  points which need to discuss. Firstly, in paragraph 1, line 4, “I read everything l could get my hand on, academic and anecdotal. I talked to everyone l knew, young and old…..no source was overlooked”, the author argued that divorce is always bad and unhappy. However, I think this is a wrong statement as the author seem to be unilateral about divorce. Because she can not read all resources about effect of divorce on children. Secondly, in paragraph 3, the author claimed that the kid from a single parent home is always shamed of going to school. But I think the author does not exactly show some research about children’s feeling that shamed of going to school. She only showed the fact that she is shamed of going to school. But it’s not always bad that no one asks you where you are.

        In conclusion, although this article provides some examples to prove the bad effect of divorce on children, this is not categorical that single parent family have bad influence on children. Furthermore, the author was lack of the relevant examples to prove her opinions and did not show the solution of how to solve the bad effect of children in a single parent home.