How does divorce affect children psychologically?

divorce and it's affects on children vary and depend on the children, and the situation of the divorce.
the younger the children are, the less they understand about the divorce.
some blame themselves, and some blame one of the parents, if not both.
sometimes, when the child is left with a single parent, who usually is the mother the child will either blame and resent that parent for messing up the unity that the child once saw that parent having with the no longer present spouse, or the child will form a very deep bond with that parent for fear of losing the one parent that child has left.
the substitution of another person to fill in the role of the parent who either left or is not in that child's life as much by introducing a step parent can be tricky and in some cases not healthy.
one should never try to compel a child to call a step parent "mom" or "dad", unless the kid wants to do so on their own.
Beware of abusive step parents and allow free communication from child to see if step parent might be abusive behind closed doors.