Divorce is a difficult situation for any family. Everyone is experiencing a stressful state associated with the destruction of their usual life and the need to end relationships. Let's immediately decide who is getting a divorce. “Husband” and “wife” are getting divorced. “Mom” and “dad” always remain with the child. Adults created a family by making a conscious choice, but a child does not choose where he will be born. And if divorce is a conscious decision for adults, even if it is a difficult decision. Children have no such choice, and for a long time they live in the hope that their little paradise will return. Divorce throws children out of emotional balance. Parents in this situation are most often busy with divorce, division of property, and their emotions. Sometimes the help of a psychologist is needed not only by the child, but also by the parents. To work in such a situation, the psychologist needs to know the age and gender characteristics of the child’s reaction to the divorce situation. Infants tolerate divorce more easily than anyone if the mother controls herself emotionally. A child at this age cannot express what he feels; the response to what is happening is somatic disorders (problems with sleep, whims, loss of appetite, stomach upsets, diathesis). At the age of 1-3 years, the experience is already more complicated, it is difficult for them to accept the fact parents' separation. Kids often think that mom and dad broke up because of them. Possible child reactions may include: sleep problems; sudden attacks of screaming, crying and anger for no apparent reason; return to infant behavior (developmental regression); manifestation of aggressiveness (the child may bite, fight); the emergence of panic fear if the parent is not around. So children aged 3-6 years later experience a feeling of guilt, it seems to him that his parents separated because he is bad. At early school age, children understand what divorce is, they know that parents will no longer live together. But they are afraid of being left alone as a result of divorce. They may be afraid that they will never see dad again if they stay with mom and vice versa. They may believe that they are able to restore the relationship between mom and dad. Or they may be angry with one of the parents, dividing them into “good” and “bad”. A strong resentment and total anger towards the whole world appears. Most often, schoolchildren experience the following reactions as a result of stress due to their parents’ divorce: - bad behavior; - bad marks; -ignoring school; -negativism; - riot; -protest; - avoidance of friendship; - detachment from the outside world; At the age of 12-18 years, children are able to adequately imagine the causes and consequences of divorce, but at this age divorce is superimposed on the teenage crisis. The reaction to divorce is quite violent. This situation forces the teenager to take a fresh look at himself and his parents. His own self suffers greatly - especially when the teenager begins to blame himself for what happened in the family. To cope with stress, children at this age commit actions associated with risks to their health (smoking, drinking alcohol and drugs, etc.). Often for a teenager, parental divorce becomes the reason for the collapse of the ideal of romantic love. (Parents divorced, guy left his girlfriend) The most common reactions to parents’ divorce on the part of teenagers are: - Denial, refusal to believe what happened. - Fear, anxiety and uncertainty about the future. - Anger and hostility towards whichever parent is blamed for the divorce, or towards both. A teenager often accuses his father or mother of abandoning the family, declaring that he hates them. - Self-accusation. Some teenagers decide that the responsibility for the separation of adults lies with them, since they should have prevented it, or that the father (mother) leaves because the children did not live up to their expectations. A teenager can carefully hide painful experiences of this kind. - Jealousy. If the father or mother begins to date another person and becomes emotionally attached to him. At this time the teenager feels.