Huddleson 1

Jacob Huddleson

Mrs. Bell

English 1201

5 September 2019

Research Proposal

My research question asks about the differences of the quality of life for children before

and after a divorce has happened. As a child, I lived with a split family. When it happened, I had

felt like my world was turned on its head. My father had moved out, both sides of my family had

only spiteful things to say about the other, and I was stuck in the middle of it all. That is to be

taken literally as well, as I was a middle child and often felt ignored. I remember always being

told that life was going to turn out better now that they were apart.

I have often thought that the divorce of my parents had effects that lied beyond the

environment in which I dwelled. I know for a fact that I had often felt guilt about their splitting.

In addition, I often coped with the stress of these events by hiding away and being more timid.

My interest in this subject largely comes from my desire to understand the consequences of

something that happens to many people, while unearthing the more niche and less talked about

results of divorce.

1. How do I feel about this topic? This topic used to be a lot more emotionally charged

for me, as it filled me with insecurity and embarrassment. Nowadays, I have accepted

it as something from the past, and I look at it as an unfortunate domestic

inconvenience.
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2. What do I think about this topic? Lifestyle changes before and after divorce is very

dependent on the situation at home, such as the presence of a domestic abuser or other

such variables. I think immediately, life tends to get better, while it likely gets worse

in the long term.

3. What do I believe about this topic? Divorce is never the same anywhere you look, and

every household is different. I believe that the variety of situations that lead up to this

will be an important variable I have to consider.

4. What do I already know about this topic? From my own experience, as well as the

experiences of those who I have spoken to about this, divorce is never easy to go

through. Stress always befalls everyone involved, and the now severed families tend

to not get along. This leads me to believe that the long-term stress of lacking a strong

family structure, as well as other problems, lead to a slowly deteriorating lifestyle for

children.

All in all, I do not know as much as I would like to about the effects of divorce. If I knew

everything, I would not research it. I think the best place to start would be to look for the

actual causes of divorce, as well as the rates of stress among children before, during, and

after a divorce. Are children more stressed because of divorce? What causes a divorce?

Those would be my first two things to investigate.