Effect on children and adolescents

The effects of divorce reflect a complex com­bination of genetic, parent, child and contextual factors that precede and follow the divorce in conjunction with the divorce itself. Perhaps not all children go through the same experiences before or after their parents’ divorce.

However, divorce is always a major event that challenges and may emotionally and behaviourally affect the normal development of children.

The US Census Bureau reported that the divorce rate in America for first marriages is between 43 per cent and 50 per cent. It is reported that the rates of divorce for subsequent marriages increase; for second 60 per cent and 73 per cent for the third (US Census Bureau 2004).

In the UK, over half the couples who divorced in 2007 had at least one child aged under 16. Twenty per cent of these children were under five years of age (Royal College of Psychiatrists 2011).

These factors may partly explain why the US and the UK ranked in the bottom three countries of the UNICEF child well-being survey 2007.

Based on data from over 81,000 people in 37 studies, Amato and Keith (1991), concluded that parental divorce has broad negative consequences on the quality of life of children. Hetherington and Kelly (2002) concluded that 25 per cent of children whose parents divorce have long-term social, emotional or psychological problems in adulthood, compared with 10 per cent of children brought up by non-divorced parents.

This suggests that not all children are affected negatively by divorce but there is a significant difference between the two groups, making divorce a risk factor for behavioural and emotional problems.

Are these effects attributable to divorce per se or to correlated factors leading up to the divorce or post-divorce or, indeed, genetic factors (that is, vulnerable people being more likely both to divorce and to produce troubled offspring)?

Studies report that children/adolescents of parents who divorce have more internalising (anxiety/depressive symptoms) and externalising (conduct/behavioural) problems than those whose parents did not divorce. Also, children whose parents eventually divorce show poorer adjustment prior to the divorce than do children whose parents do not divorce.

A longitudinal (long-term) study by Cherlin et al (1998) reported modest but significant behavioural, achievement and family difficulties in both boys and girls. This remained significant even when adjusting for pre-existing difficulties the children may have had. Therefore, the specific effect of divorce on emotional and behavioural measures remained significant (Cherlin et al [1998]).

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (2011) outlines a number of emotions children may experience as a result of divorce:

• a sense of loss – separation from a parent can mean loss not only of home but one’s whole way of life;

• fearful about being left alone – if one parent can go, perhaps the other will do the same;

• angry at one or both parents for the relationship breakdown;

• guilty about having caused the parental separation;

• rejected and insecure;

• torn between both parents;

• feeling insecure (resulting in regressive behaviour such as bedwetting, “clinginess”, nightmares, worries or disobedience).

Insecurity can cause children to behave as though they are much younger and, therefore, bedwetting, “clinginess”, nightmares, worries or disobedience can all occur. This behaviour often happens before or after visits to the parent living apart from the family. Teenagers may show their distress by misbehaving or withdrawing into themselves. They may find it difficult to concentrate at school.

Amato (2003) concluded that many children whose parents divorce grow up to have poorer psychological well-being than would have been predicted if their parents had stayed together.

These feelings are often made worse by the fact that many children have to move home and sometimes school when parents separate and most families in this situation come under some financial strain, even if they did not have financial problems before.

Hetherington et al (1998) described the economic disadvantage that often accompanies divorce. Twenty-eight per cent of single mothers and 11 per cent of single fathers live in poverty in comparison with eight per cent of two-parent families (Grall, 2007).

Many of these families will come to rely on state support. Because of the lack of compensatory resources, divorce tends to disproportionately affect the poor. As Fukuyama argues in The Great Disruption, “family breakdown for the poor can only be mitigated through intervention by a welfare state that, in effect, takes the place of the father”.

Divorce can make it more difficult for parents to monitor and supervise children effectively (Buchana et al, 1996; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994), to discipline consistently (Hetherington et al 1979) and to provide warmth and affection (Forehand et al, 1990; Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999).

After divorce, parent-child conflict often increases and family cohesion decreases (Short, 2002). Marital conflict and divorce increase parents’ depression, anxiety and stress, which reduce their ability to parent well and may, in turn, negatively affect children’s adjustment (Emery et al, 1999).

As they may be less capable of realistically assessing the causes and consequences of divorce, young children feel more anxious and guilty (Hetherington, 1989). Adolescents may feel as though they are pushed into adulthood and must take responsibility for their siblings. They may also feel pressured to choose one parent over the other.

Individuals who develop an insecure attachment in childhood (caregiver not considered to be a safe haven for the child) are ultimately more likely to divorce than those with secure childhood attachments. Intergenerational studies suggest that parental divorce doubles the risk that one’s own marriage will end in divorce. This may, in part, be due to a reduced likelihood to view marriage as a lifelong commitment .Individuals whose parents divorced when they were children experience more marital discord than those whose parents stayed together.

From clinical experience in working with young people in mental health services in the UK, one consistency strikes me.

Almost always when a young person presents at the service and almost for whatever reason s/he presented, the issue of his/her divorced parents is brought up as one of major negative events in his/her life and it is always a key event predisposing, precipitating and/or perpetuating the behavioural or emotional problem they have presented with. One young person said the main disappointment in her life is her father, “because when I was growing up, he was too busy starting a new family… when he then tried becoming a part of my life, I was grown up and did not need him. Now I refuse to talk or have any contact with him.”

In this context, we should invest in the prevention of the breakdown of marriages by preparing couples for marriage. Adequately trained individuals could identify those couples who may be at high risk for future marital separation and then refer them to the appropriate services.

There is also a lot of family work that can be done with married couples and their families to deal with the problems encountered and prevent the breakdown of the marriage, encouraging separation as a last resort.

However, in cases where one of the divorced parents is violent or otherwise abusive it is often best to separate from an abusive person and seek an annulment

One major concern is, if divorce is introduced in the country it will become a normalised concept, thus, over the years, the numbers of divorced families will follow the trajectory of other European countries. Evidence from the EU27 shows nearly one divorce for every two marriages across the European Union in 2005 and 2006. As a result, the number of children exposed to this event will increase exponentially, putting a larger number of children, in particular the least resilient, at risk of devolving emotional and behavioural problems during the course of their life.

The presence and support of both parents is undoubtedly beneficial for the healthy development and growth of their child.

Behavioural effects of divorce on children

(Cherlin et al, 1998, Lansford, 2009)
Divorce may give rise to:

• Externalising disorders – ag­gression, disobedience, temper tantrums, reluctance to go to school, food fads (Amato, 2001).

• Internalising disorders – dep­ression, anxiety, poor appetite, difficulty sleeping, bad dreams, difficulty concentrating at school, being miserable or tearful, irritability.

• Lower academic achievement: children from divorced parents scored lower on reading and mathematics achievement tests.

• Earlier sexual behaviour: associated with higher rates of sexual activity among adolescent females perhaps from direct observation of their parent’s way of negotiating their new romantic relationships or as a search for new sources of emotional security.

• Alcohol and substance: in­creased risk of alcohol and substance misuse.

• Quality of social relationships: many children whose parents divorce have worse relationships with their fathers than do children whose parents stayed together.

Dr Camilleri is a speciality registrar in children and adolescent psychiatry, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and associate clinical researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, UK.