How does a divorce and separation from one parent affect children’s future relationships? Can this cause trust issues or commitment issues in the kids’ future relationship? Can this cause trust issues or commitment issues in the kids’ future relationship? Yes, of course. How? When the children have witnessed and experienced the destruction of their parents’ relationship—a relationship that is not only part and parcel of their own relationships with those parents, but a relationship that shapes all other relationships between themselves and other people—it has adverse effects. Those adverse effects can—in the even of a separation and/or divorce—(and usually will) include difficulty with trust and commitment in the children’s future relationships.