Growing Up with One or Both Parents: The Effects on Physical Health and Health-Related Behavior Through Adolescence and into Early Adulthood

Abstract

Individuals from intact and nonintact families were compared regarding their health-related behavior and physical health problems in a prospective study during a 17-year period throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. A total of 983 respondents were included in the study gathering data at 9 different times from the age of 13 until 30 years of age. Significant differences were observed for a number of health-related behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, nutrition habits, and physical activity, as well as for self-reported health and subjective health complaints, all being less favorable among those who had grown up in nonintact families. The differences were similar across all data collection times for all but 1 outcome, indicating that the effect ts of family structure were stable throughout adolescence and early adulthood. This could have valuable implications for timing or duration of health promotion efforts.