Creating a Safe Environment During Divorce

During the divorce process, it is incredibly important for parents to pay attention to their child’s living environment. Parents seeking to determine if their child is suffering from clinical depression should ask themselves the following important questions about the child’s environment and how it’s impacting the child’s life:

• Divorce can result in significant conflict and arguing between spouses. Is this arguing occurring in front of the children?
• Divorce can also result in substantial disruptions and in routines and schedules. Have we attempted to provide our children with structure and routine?
• Divorce can result in hurt feelings and the inability and unwillingness of parents to communicate with each other or their children. Are we communicating with our children?
• Conflict caused by divorce may prompt one parent to limit or restrict the child’s other parent. Are either of us prohibiting our child from seeing the other parent?

By answering these questions, parents can determine if the environment in which their child is living is contributing to the child’s depression. If the environment is a contributing factor, parents should seek help for their child and for themselves to help improve the child’s external environment. Even though parents may not be able to control their child’s emotional response to divorce, they can create a safe, positive and loving environment in which the child feels loved and secure. For parents that suspect their child is suffering from depression, this should be one of the first steps taken to ameliorate the child’s distress.

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