How divorce affects children’s academic performance

Studies have shown that separation and divorce have a high correlation with academic achievement of kids. On average, children from broken homes experience a drop in academic performance especially during the first years of separation.

All parents wish their children the best; they desire to see their young ones pursue higher education and get good-paying jobs in future. This is not always the case for children from divorced families.

Divorce has a negative impact on the life of a child, from a decline in educational performance to very difficult adult relations even with their partners later in life. The effects of divorce on children’s wellbeing are limitless; for example when children are assisted to do their homework by their parents, it helps to boost their self-esteem and improve their grades. Let’s go over how these effects in detail and how the impact a child’s performance.

How divorce affects children’s academic performance

1. Emotionally distracted

Divorce can create emotional distress in children. This makes children develop some behavioral problems and start to be less focused in life; they start to look at life from a different angle, mostly from a negative perspective. When kids are in emotional distress, it becomes difficult for them to concentrate on class work. It is therefore important to seek the services of a tutor to help such kids to focus on their education. 

2. It lowers educational aspirations 

Whenever there is a divorce, children are the ones who suffer most; it is the last thing that any child would wish to happen. Divorce is tough on children; this goes further to affect their educational outcomes and aspirations. During a divorce, children are forced to move from one place to another, hear unseemly things from their parents and forced to take sides. This has a negative long term effect on their education performance.

3. Lower grade point average

Research shows that divorce makes children have a lower grade point average than those from married parents. This can be attributed to more to the difficult times children from divorced families are facing. 

4. Comprehension suffers

 Divorce can severely affect the mind of a child. When divorce occurs, children are left in the most difficult and challenging situations that make them feel sad, lost, depressed and even confused. Diffident studies have confirmed this; it has been found that children from divorced families are likely to suffer from hyperactivity disorder and ADD than those from nuclear families. Divorce lowers their ability to easily read and comprehend in class. 

5. Less likely to attend higher education 

Children from divorced families tend to fail to continue their education past high school. Several factors contribute to this; one of the common causes for this is the lack of finances to cater for college or university education. 

6. Behavioral issues

Lack of tender care and affection that children from divorced families face makes them behave weirdly in schools. Divorce causes emotional turmoil in children. This further makes them to start skipping school and acting poorly. Without discipline, it makes it hard for teachers to effectively manage their classrooms.

Although divorce is inevitable for valid reasons, the effects on the educational performance of children in school is severe. Parents should do their very best to create a conducive environment for the development of their kids, both academically and socially. This however does not mean that parents should continue to live in abusive relationships that could also lead to the same consequences.