This is the age at which children often become intensely angry with their parents’ divorce. They may blame the parents or even reject one of them, most commonly the parent with whom they live. Boys are more likely to become aggressive while girls are more likely to become withdrawn. Performance at school is often affected as well.
How parents can help
As well as the advice from the previous sections, it is important that parents accept that their children will be angry. This acceptance will help to disperse the child’s feeling of impotence over an event that they do not want to happen. Tolerating anger which may seem arbitrary and unconnected is the most helpful way of managing these feelings.
It is important to understand that these feelings are often expressed in the place children feel most safe and to the person they feel safest with.