Having healthy self-esteem is very important for kids. Poor self-esteem could lower a child’s confidence in all sorts of areas of life, from academics, to relationships, to problem-solving.
A child’s self-esteem can be impacted by many things. For example, it could potentially be affected by a parent divorce. Research has indicated that, for daughters of divorcing couples, there are associations between self-esteem level and what happens in their parents’ divorce.
For one, a study found that not having access to both parents after a divorce is linked to lower self-esteem among daughters of divorce. This underscores that child custody outcomes in divorce cases can have major impacts on children. This potential for significant impacts is one of the reasons why it is so important to keep the best interests of the child front-and-center in custody matters in a divorce.
The study also found a connection between low self-esteem in females and conflicts among parents. This was the case for both pre-divorce parental conflicts and post-divorce parental conflicts. A key thing for divorcing parents to remember is that how they act in their divorce can impact their kids. So, it is important for parents to avoid unnecessary conflict in a divorce.
As a note, the study did not find similar associations when it came to sons of divorce.
When going through a divorce, parents need to keep in mind the effects the divorce could be having on their kids, including self-esteem effects. It is important for divorcing parents to do what they can to minimize their children’s exposure to negative effects from the divorce and provide their children with support that could help counteract negative effects that do occur.
This can include taking steps to help their kids build up strong self-esteem. Examples of steps divorcing parents can take to help a daughter with self-esteem include: creating a safe environment for discussing feelings, encouraging assertiveness, providing protections against negative cultural influences, assisting with goal-setting, being a role-model for kindness and avoiding letting negativity one is feeling from the divorce seep into conversations with one’s daughter.
Source: The Huffington Post, “10 Ways To Boost Your Daughter’s Self-Esteem After Divorce,” Terry Gaspard, Dec. 3, 2015