Linda Bird Francke's The Sons Of Divorce

In today’s society, divorce has become more common and occurs almost every ten to thirteen seconds. Anywhere from 40% to 50% of the United States population is divorced. A large majority of these divorces involve young children. These children often do not understand what is going on or how to deal with this type of situation. Young girls and young boys of divorce are impacted severely, yet they deal with this happening rather differently. It is often assumed that boys should be strong or boys are not supposed to show emotion; likewise it is also presumed that girls are the emotional ones, however these are stereotypes that don’t show true in this circumstance. Linda Bird Francke, author of The Sons of Divorce (1983) says, “There seems to be more vulnerability in boys, more resilience in girls.” By this she means that for some reason or another boys are defenseless when it comes to divorce, whereas girls show more adjustability. Throughout Francke’s article, she discusses the personal experience of two children whose family went through a divorce. The children, boy and girl, went through the same situation, but had two different reactions. Laura, who was 12 at the time of the divorce,
He claims “Youth are more likely to use alcohol 2-4 years before a parental divorce. After the divorce, youth have an increased risk of using alcohol and marijuana.” Be that as it may, boys have a higher and longer usage of alcohol or drugs after a parental divorce than girls. In this study, Arkes observed the substance use of cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol. He endorsed the use of these three substances were constant even years after the divorce. Arkes results showed that the relationship between divorce and substance use was not impermanent and could further negatively impact the person’s