10 Shocking Statistics on Children and Divorce

1. Half of all American children will witness the breakup of a parent's marriage. Of these, close to half will also see the breakup of a parent's second marriage.

2. Among the millions of children who have seen their parents divorce, one of every 10 will also live through three or more parental marriage breakups.

3. Forty percent of children growing up in America today are being raised without their fathers.

4. Of all children born to married parents this year, fifty percent will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach their 18th birthday.

5. Studies in the early 1980s showed that children in repeat divorces earned lower grades and their peers rated them as less pleasant to be around.

6. Teenagers in single-parent families and in blended families are three times more likely to need psychological help within a given year.

7. Compared to children from homes disrupted by death, children from divorced homes have more psychological problems.

8. Children of divorce are at a greater risk to experience injury, asthma, headaches and speech defects than children whose parents have remained married.

9. Following divorce, children are fifty percent more likely to develop health problems than two-parent families.