Understanding how divorce affects toddlers is critical to their emotional, physical and mental well-being. Toddlers may find divorce particularly confusing and stressful. They typically don’t understand what is going on and, in addition, have limited ability to express their thoughts and feelings. They understand that one parent is not living in the home, and that schedules are changing, but they do not grasp the reason(s) or concepts that are associated with the family separation.
In this excellent blog posting, Ann Marie Termini writes how divorce is especially stressful and confusing for toddlers. With limited coping resources of their own, toddlers need additional reassurances from both parents and other adults they interact with. They too are affected by changes in their family structure and changes in contact with each parent. Though toddlers may not appear to do so initially, over time most children adjust well to their parents’ divorce.
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