| Description |
In 2008, it was estimated that 40 percent of all marriages ended in divorce (U.S. Census, 2004) . Research has long suggested that the consequences of divorce can be profound for the children of divorced families (Amato, 2000). For example, children who experienced parental divorce were 50 percent more likely to develop health problems than children from intact two parent families (Angel, 1988; Tucker et al., 1997; Strohschei 2005). Similarly, children from divorced families also exhibit poorer academic performance (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Wolfinger, 2003), delayed psychological development (Kurdek, Fine, & Sinclair,1994), strained relationships with family members (Hurre, 2006; Portman 2009), and poorer mental health (Ängarne-Lindberg, 2009). Some research has focused on the consequences of parental divorce as immediate or short-term consequences that are faced by the children - this is often referred to as a "crisis model"- whereas other research has documented the long-term effects of divorce - this is often referred to as the "chronic strain" model-, those consequences that persist for many years after parental divorce (Amato, 2000). Furthermore, scant research has attempted to isolate the potentially differential experiences of adult children (those who experience parental divorce as adults) compared to those who experience parental divorce earlier in the life course. About 20 percent of divorces occur in couples married over 15 years (Cooney, 1994), suggesting that parental divorce is not isolated to young children only. The purpose of this analysis is to identify whether children exhibited different types of consequences based on the age at which their parents divorced. Specifically, we explore whether the timing of parental divorce has long-term consequences on two distinct outcomes: the child's perceptions of family-solidarity and their mental health status later in life. These two outcomes were chosen because they represent a range of consequences involving both personal mental health and subsequent relationships with family. |
