Long-term effects of parental divorce on mental health – A meta-analysis
- Auersperg, F., Vlasak, T., Ponocmy, I., & Barth, A. (2019). Long-term effects of parental divorce on mental health – A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 19, 107-115. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.09.011
- Substantial research has been devoted to examining the effects of parental divorce on child mental health. Although some children tend to report more mental health issues following divorce, most children of divorced parents report similar levels of mental health when compared to children of continuously married parents. Nevertheless, it has been several years since a meta-analysis examined the link between parental divorce and child wellbeing, particularly one that examines multiple dimensions of child mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and suicidality) and health behaviors (i.e., substance use). This meta-analysis examined the most recent literature on the long-term effects of parental divorce, specifically 54 articles published between 1990 and 2018 asking adult children of divorced parents to report on multiple indicators of health. Additionally, this study examined whether negative outcomes related to parental divorce have increased or decreased during this timeframe. The results show that parental divorce places children at greater risk for negative mental health outcomes later in life, but the impact of parental divorce seems to have decreased in recent years.
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