The number of children who were living with only one of their biological parents from 1900 to 1972 increased by 700%. Can we call this beneficial on the child's maturing and mental stability and development? Between 1970 and 1996 the proportion of children under 18 living with only one of their parents grew from 12% to 28%. While the percentage of children living with both parents declined from 85% to 68%. As this century has passed, more and more divorces are taking place at an increased rate each year, and while it may be hard on the parents, it's detrimental to so many children. It confuses them, upsets them, and leaves them questioning many things, most of which they will never find out until they are older. From 1950 to 1980 there has been a total of 175% increase in divorces.

The statistics now indicate, that half of all children will witness the breakup of a parents marriage, of these close to half of them will go on to see the break up of a parents second marriage, that's indicating a 25% increase each year! The latest figures released show that all in all, between 1970 and 1996 the number of divorced people has more than quadrupled. 10% of these children that witness this first divorce will go on to witness three or more family breakups.

I am here to give my thoughts and opinions on the issue of now in this 20th century, the increased rate of children developing mentally without a fatherly figure in the family is harming the children's development.

Tim Rotheisler commented on the recent increases in break ups and the effects it has on children. "Since the introduction of "no-fault divorce" in Canada 30 years ago, the rate of marital break-up has soared 600%. A third of marriages fail, and over a third of those break-ups involve children. One-fifth of Canadian

children have lost a parent to divorce, with an effect that some sociologists now say can be "worse than a parent's death." Divorce is consistently associated with juvenile emotional disorders, crime, suicide, promiscuity and later marital break-up."

So as we all can see now that marriage break ups are at a increased rate and still the rate continues to increase. But how is this affecting our children? Tim indicated that divorce was closely related to disorder in juvenile crime, suicide and promiscuity. The statistics back this statement up. In 1992 1 in 3 women were assaulted by a domestic partner, that's four million in a single year and the primary reason is divorces and marital problems. When children are exposed to this, they learn from it unfortunatly. The sadder thing for the women is that a man will receive on average for killing his partner 2 to 6 years of imprisionment. While women who kill their partners are given 15 years on average.

Problem youth is a big issue among authorities and citizens today. In Canada 1017 of every 100000 youth are locked up in jail. 415 of these will be incarcerated for long periods of time. What the annoying thing is, is WHAT is causing this behavior, what is 'sparking' it? What kind of childhood experiences are causing seven million youth to commit an offence each year. 3% of these 'young offenders' contribute to committing 25% of all offences. An argument may be that these kids are only the ones that leave school, unfortunately this is not the case, there are three million offences committed on school campuses each year in America.

What I have just told you backs up one side of the argument brought forward earlier. But I personally don't think that parents' not breaking up is the solution. Many of us know that a parent, mainly the father will be an abusive father, or one that doesn't contribute positively at all to the family. The presence of a fatherly role in the house may encourage youth to be violent towards a particular race either by parental persuasion or in some cases, abuse the child, thus leaving the spouse no reputable option but to leave home. Most children, as naïve as we may be now by objecting to this comment listen to what their parents say, they may not take full head to the advice, but it is still there. Our parents contribute 90% of our emotional benefit. They are the people we have to fall back on if we are sad, or confused. And recent surveys have indicated that children that don't open up to parents or mentors have trouble expressing their feelings later on in life, and become insensitive.

My argument is that if a parent promotes a certain view of a race, or person. Ie: homophobia, racism against blacks or whites or asians, whichever, the child will learn from this and have this in their head. And may become a detrimental part of society. In conclusion to this, I would like to refresh all arguments presented in this delivery. A child who witnesses divorces or domestic violence in a family is likely to become a part of problem youth. On the other hand it may seem better for the parents to split up.

I have taken both sides to this argument, and I am certain there is other sides to it as there normally is in most cases. The real question is WHAT is harming our children? Parents breaking up? Or Parents not breaking up? I think it's just the marital arrangement, and that people have abused this over the years, thus abusing their child either mentally or physically.