The Adulterous Epidemic: Are Parents to Blame for Divorce?

Kids have a lot of influences. Teachers, friends, siblings, grandparents, doctors, and religious leaders can make huge impacts on their lives. But your Michigan divorce attorney can tell you that no one makes a bigger impact on kids than their parents. So when household-based adults have serious compulsions or make major mistakes, it only makes sense that children learn by example. But just how does that translate to divorce?

How Parental Behavior Impacts Children

Children pay such close attention to their parents that when Mom or Dad does something less-than-appropriate, an imitation is likely to follow. If parents smoke, chances are their kids will pick up the habit early in life. If parents are heavy drinkers or gamblers, the kids will see it as a part of life. And even though most children of divorced parents insist they’ll never make the same mistakes, statistics prove otherwise.

Nationwide statistics insist 50 percent of first marriages and 66 percent of second marriages end in divorce, but those can be misleading and based on miscalculations or an enormous combination of factors. The National Opinion Research Council conducted a 20-year survey which shed a lot of light on the actual drop of divorce rates in the modern age. The study surveyed 21,000 people annually between 1973 and 1994 to note the differences between split-up rate, adult marriage rate, and teen marriage rate. In most cases, current rates are far less than those of earlier years. In fact, the rate of marrying at all has dropped 26 percent.

When it comes to children of divorce, one of two common decisions are made: either to never get married or to never get divorced. But when one spouse is a product of a divorced household, splitting is twice as likely as those raised in a non-divorced household. And when both spouses are a product of divorce, the divorce rates for the offspring’s marriage rises to three times the regular rate. If one of the sets of parents married a second time after the original divorce, the chances for divorce for their offspring soars to 91 percent.

Do Cheating Parents Affect the Divorce Rates of Their Children?

Infidelity is the act of romantically or sexually cheating on a committed partner of any status. Ninety percent of Americans still believe that adultery is morally wrong, yet cheating has increased over the years in popularity and is now one of the most common cited causes of divorce. It can destroy families and relationships that reach beyond the once happy couple as well. So then, why do people even bother cheating?

The most common answer is gender-dependant. Women are more likely to cheat because their partner isn’t meeting their emotional needs, especially after the age of 30. In a woman’s case, full sexual infidelity doesn’t have to be reached in order to achieve the emotional attachment she desires. But if her spouse is the reason for the lack of feeling, the chances of her stepping out on the marriage increase.

The main reason men cheat is sex. It’s more likely to occur due to their own mental perceptions than to the lack of interest on their partner’s end. Although infidelity can happen at any time during a marriage, after children come into the picture, men tend to see their spouses as maternal figures rather than sexual beings. At that point a man may crave the excitement that leads him to see if he can get away with an affair.

But how does that relate to divorce rates for children of adulterous homes? A recent poll surveying 2000 previous cheaters found that 73 percent of women who cheated on their spouses had daughters who did the same. Thirty-two percent of those women admitted their mother’s cheating made it less taboo. Fifty-four percent of men who had cheated admitted that their father’s adultery made it more acceptable on their end to look elsewhere for physical needs. Many of those men also mimic their father’s cheating patterns to some extent, but 25 percent of men insist they’d end the affair if their dad told them to stop.

So what does this all mean? It means that men and women primarily learn and continue to display their moral and human behavior based their parents' actions. But there is only so much abuse and neglect anyone can take. If you’re in Mt. Clemens, MI, and have reached the end of your rope, contact us today.

Femminineo Attorneys
Michigan Divorce Help
110 S Main St #200
Mt Clemens, MI 48043
United States
(586) 954-9500
http://www.michigandivorcehelp.com/