Attorney Lauren P. Raysor is asking parents who are getting, or planning to get, a divorce to prioritize their children’s emotional and psychological health, as they are also affected by this difficult life event and that the month of January is International Child-Centered Divorce Month.

International Child-Centered Divorce Month is an annual designation set during the month of January which alerts parents of the effects that divorce has on their children and how they can eliminate the emotional and psychological toll of divorce, while and after it happens.

Studies from the U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health have shown that children of divorce are more likely to develop mental and physical illnesses, drop out of school, become incarcerated and commit suicide. Further, less than half of children will still live with their biological parents by the time they turn 17, according to the American Community Survey.

Ms. Raysor says most divorces occur in January, after the holidays end. “Both parents try to keep the family together when the holidays come around,” she says. “They try to keep a united front for the sake of the children, but it becomes too great so, when the holidays are over, that is when the marriage is over, too.”

The process of getting a divorce can be stressful for adults, Ms. Raysor says, but parents should take their children’s feelings into account as well. “It is important for the child’s health and wellbeing that the parents engage in counseling and in healthy communication with one another,” she says. “Children can be emotionally and psychologically scarred from divorces that become acrimonious.”

For more information, call (914) 733-8080 or visit www.laurenpraysor.com.

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About Lauren P. Raysor
Lauren P. Raysor is an attorney concentrating in personal injury, civil rights, bankruptcy, matrimonial and family law. She has litigated numerous cases over the years, taking more than 35 cases to verdict and has argued before the Appellate Division in the case of Makeda Barnes Joseph v. Universal Music Group. She served as Corporation Counsel for the City of Mount Vernon, where she was in charge of the city’s Law Department. Ms. Raysor is currently outside counsel for the New York State Dormitory Authority, and served as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Upper Manhattan Region, outside counsel to the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and counsel at a Wall Street law firm.