Abstract
BackgroundAn association between parental separation or divorce occurring in childhood and increased psychological distress in adulthood is well established. However relatively little is known about why this association exists and how the mechanisms might differ for men and women. We investigate why this association exists, focussing on material and relational mechanisms and in particular on the way in which these link across the life course.MethodsThis study used the 1970 British Cohort Study (n = 10,714) to investigate material (through adolescent and adult material disadvantage, and educational attainment) and relational (through parent–child relationship quality and adult partnership status) pathways between parental separation (0–16 years) and psychological distress (30 years). Psychological distress was measured using Rutter’s Malaise Inventory. The inter-linkages between these two broad mechanisms across the life course were also investigated. Missing data were multiply imputed by chained equations. Path analysis was used to explicitly model prospectively-collected measures across the life course, therefore methodologically extending previous work.ResultsMaterial and relational pathways partially explained the association between parental separation in childhood and adult psychological distress (indirect effect = 33.3% men; 60.0% women). The mechanisms were different for men and women, for instance adult partnership status was found to be more important for men. Material and relational factors were found to interlink across the life course. Mechanisms acting through educational attainment were found to be particularly important.ConclusionsThis study begins to disentangle the mechanisms between parental separation in childhood and adult psychological distress. Interventions which aim to support children through education, in particular, are likely to be particularly beneficial for later psychological health.
Highlights
An association between parental separation or divorce occurring in childhood and increased psychological distress in adulthood is well established
Mandemakers et al [18] consider early life disadvantage to be a modifier of the association between parental divorce and psychological distress, in our study we argue that material disadvantage is an important pathway or explanatory variable between parental separation and adult psychological health
This study finds that parental separation is likely to have long-term implications for psychological health in adulthood which is consistent with previous studies e.g. [1,2,3,4,9,30,38]
Summary
An association between parental separation or divorce occurring in childhood and increased psychological distress in adulthood is well established. Where the child’s custodial family is headed by a single mother there is a particular risk of material disadvantage during adolescence [7,8] This may be because of the costs of running two households, legal fees, reliance on benefits, a single-parent income, and the reduced earning power of women due to increase time in domestic work or unequal pay in the workplace. Educational attainment may be an important means through which material disadvantage persists across the life course; children who are more materially disadvantaged in childhood are known to have lower educational attainment [12], which in turn increases the chances they will remain materially disadvantaged as an adult In turn both material disadvantage in adulthood and educational attainment are associated with psychological distress [13,14]
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