Parental Break-up Research Articles

Coparenting as a mediator between physical custody arrangements and children's mental health.

The detrimental effects of parental break-up on children's mental health are well-documented. However, research has also shown that children living in joint physical custody (JPC) arrangements often fare better than children living in sole physical custody (SPC) arrangements. Thus, the question arises: What are the differences between JPC and SPC that account for those results? Drawing on data from the Family Models in Germany (FAMOD) study conducted in 2019, structural equation models (SEM) were estimated to deduct the mediating role of coparenting support in children's mental health in 465 JPC and 652 SPC families with children aged 2-14. The findings suggest that the better mental health observed among children in JPC families than among children in SPC families was fully mediated by coparenting support. However, this held true only for internalizing and externalizing behavior, but not for prosocial behavior as no differences between JPC and SPC were found for this dimension. The findings affirm the importance of supportive coparenting for children's well-being after family dissolution in both SPC and JPC arrangements. After breaking up, parents should be supported in their parental engagement through coparenting counseling or psychoeducation classes.

Parental breakup and children's outcomes in the United States

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigates differences between health trajectories of children of divorce or separation and children of continuously married families.BackgroundOver the past 50 years, during which fewer children grew up in families with both biological parents, there has been an increased academic interest to understand how children fared in alternative family structures.MethodThis study uses retrospective illness histories from a recent supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to conduct a longitudinal analysis of parental breakup and child health.ResultsChildren of divorce were found to exhibit higher prevalence of several illnesses during adolescence and young adulthood than children of continuously married families. Controlling for family resources and parental mental health moderated the relationship between parental breakup and negative health outcomes. However, significant associations between parental breakup and children's health outcomes remained.ConclusionThis study provides a general outline of how parental breakup is associated with children's health trajectories. Although the analysis controls for an extensive set of variables by employing a quasi‐experimental method, caution in interpreting these findings as causal relationships is warranted.ImplicationsGiven the evidence presented, it is vital that parents and children have easy access to coping‐focused preventive interventions designed to reduce adverse effects of divorce on children.

Are Mothers and Daughters Most Important? How Gender, Childhood Family Dissolution and Parents’ Current Living Arrangements Affect the Personal Care of Parents

This study examines adult children’s propensity to provide personal care to older mothers and fathers. The theory of intergenerational solidarity facilitates the understanding of commitment and support between adult children and parents. Solidarity may depend on childhood events as well as the current situation, and we therefore focus on whether there was a parental breakup in childhood and the parent’s current living arrangements. We also focus on the gendered aspects of the relations as earlier research has found stronger matrilinear relationships. The propensity for personal care was analyzed with regression analysis using the 2012 Swedish Generations and Gender Survey. The results show that daughters are more likely than sons to provide personal care to both parents. Parental breakup in childhood does not change the propensity of personal care to any parent. The probability of receiving care is higher for lone mothers than for mothers living with the father, but not for repartnered mothers. Adult children’s care provision does not differ for lone fathers and fathers living with the mother, but children are more likely to provide care to lone fathers than to repartnered fathers. We interpret this to indicate that repartnering weakens ties to fathers but not mothers. The results indicate that the child’s gender and the parent’s living arrangements operate differently with regard to care for mothers and fathers. The most common pattern is care provided from daughters to mothers. For example, daughters of lone mothers are more likely to provide care than sons in the same situation. We conclude that intergenerational solidarity is not affected by parental breakup in childhood but that present living arrangements affect such solidarity in gendered ways.

Children sharing Preferences on Contact and Residence Arrangements in Child-inclusive Family Mediation in Norway

Abstract Mediation is mandatory for all separating and divorcing parents in Norway with children under 16 years. The participation of children is voluntary. Living arrangement preferences presented by children attending child-inclusive family mediation in Norway (n = 346, aged 4–18 years) have been examined. 47.1 per cent of children gave a living arrangement preference, and older children were more likely to express a preference for living primarily with the mother compared to an equal time-sharing arrangement. Children very often gave reasoned explanations for their wishes. Children’s utilisation of the potential in their participation supports future inclusion of children in mediation processes. The best interests of the child needs to be examined on an individual basis as children present various preferences that is not in line with a presumption of fixed time-sharing following parental break-up.

Children’s Living Arrangements after Marital and Cohabitation Dissolution in Europe

The rapid increase of the number of children being born in cohabitation appears to have an important impact on their lives, since they face a higher risk of parental breakup than children born in wedlock. This article aims to provide a cross-national overview of the living arrangements of children following breakup of cohabiting unions and to investigate whether the post-dissolution living arrangements differ between formerly cohabiting and married families. Analyzing the first wave of Generations and Gender Survey for 9 European countries shows that former cohabiters are not more or less likely to establish shared physical custody of their children than formerly married couples; however, formerly cohabiting fathers are somehow less likely to have sole custody of their children. The lower odds of sole-father custody among former cohabiters are caused by the selection of individuals into cohabiting unions (i.e., different demographic characteristics of cohabiting parents and union duration).

The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser

Reviewed by: The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser Richard Carr Where we have been, are, will be Michelle de Kretser. The Life to Come. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2017. 375 pp. A$33.00. ISBN 978-1-76029-656-8 Pippa Reynolds is a novelist on the rise, one who draws greater critical and popular attention with each work. Exhaustive in her artistry, she carries a notebook everywhere she goes, jotting down scraps from other people's lives, meanings for unfamiliar words, observed details of place and space. [End Page 167] Her husband's musical background and his way of speaking "with the force of poetry" are his chief charms. Pippa asserts, "He'll be good for my writing" (188). She eyes a future of winning awards. Pippa is ambitious, willing to work hard, determined; in fact, she has "everything needed for greatness except talent" (205). Michelle de Kretser's new novel, The Life to Come, pursues in episodic fashion the stories of five: George, Cassie, Celeste, Christabel, and Pippa. The thread uniting the several strands of the novel, Pippa appears in the stories of the others—George's student, then tenant; Cassie's high school friend; Celeste's newly made friend during Pippa's European tour; Christabel's neighbor. Beyond Pippa, however, there are other links among the five: all, for instance, are in flight from a life before. For Pippa that flight centers on her identity; until she was eighteen, her name was Narelle. Filing the application to change her name, newly minted Pippa said, "No one called Narelle's ever going to win the Booker" (47). But the name change removes her as well from her family and her history before she moved to Sydney. For Celeste, child of French parents once involved in the resistance during the French-Algerian conflicts, that life before is her growing up in Perth, where her mother sought refuge after the disappearance of her father. Now living in Paris, where she is visited by her Australian half brother and his family, Celeste shudders at the world she escaped: "She had fled the AMP Building, the hot, flat streets, the catastrophic light" (101). Whether a strained childhood defined by a parental breakup (George), a privileged, eventless childhood (Cassie), or a life in Ceylon—not Sri Lanka—ended by civil war (Christabel), de Kretser's characters find themselves "looking at the past: a cavernous hall . . . where all the furniture was ugly or broken. . . . They gave thanks for their escape" (212–13). The present is often confused and chaotic. On the one hand, Pippa's work consumes many of her waking hours, the success of her third novel promising an ever-growing fame, at least in Australian circles. But she is also consumed by the minutiae of contemporary life: email messages, Facebook postings, tweets sharing supportive comments toward fellow writers, photos of meals made and shared, inanities passed to and from strangers. In the midst of these twin obsessions, she suddenly develops a third: a gnawing fear that her husband is straying, that he is not spending time with his ailing parents as he claims but using those visits as a mask for his dallying. Celeste, as another example, takes a smug pride in her simple Paris life—modest apartment, bicycle for transport, small but livable earnings as translator and teacher. She is also deeply in love with Sabine, a nearby florist who is also a wife and mother. Yet when her brother and family arrive from Perth, she cannot escape the feeling that her life is small and pinched. "Is this all there is?" she asks herself more insistently (105), especially as Celeste must also confront the tenuous nature of her tie with Sabine, who speaks of the need to be more present for her children and mentions in passing the possibility of a family move to the United States. The tasteful, satisfying life Celeste has claimed as fulfilling gives way before unsettling prospects: "[T]he future shrank to the single point of solitary, penny-pinching old age" (121). The several characters all stumble about, generally relieved that the past is past, trying to make sense of themselves in the present...

Are Mothers and Daughters Most Important? How Gender, Childhood Family Dissolution and Parents’ Current Living Arrangements Affect the Personal Care of Parents

The study examines adult children’s propensity to provide personal care to older parents in Sweden by gender of adult child, parental breakup in childhood and parent’s living arrangements. Data are from the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey from 2012/2013. OLS regression analyses examined personal care separately for mother and fathers. Adult daughters are more likely than sons to provide personal care to older mothers and fathers. Parental breakup in childhood does not lead to differences in personal care. The only exception being that daughters who experience breakup provide more care for their mothers. Children, especially daughters, help lone parents more often than other parents, but children’s care provision does not differ for parents living with the other parent and re-partnered parents. Gender of adult child and parent’s living arrangements operate in slightly different ways regarding care provided for mothers and fathers, and living arrangements represent a central predictor for whether children provide filial care. Particularly, the dominant kinship pattern is care provided from daughters to mother and through the mother’s line and to parents in vulnerable situations. The study discusses the results in relation to intergenerational solidarity theory, matrilineal care system and policy outlooks.

Parental breakup and children’s development: the role of time and of post-separation conditions

In recent years, the relationship between parental separation and child outcomes has received massive attention. This extraordinary level of interest stems from the rise in divorce rates in almost all developed countries. The aim of the paper is to identify the effect of parental separation on child cognitive and behavioural outcomes. It uses data on a sample of around 9000 children up to age 11, drawn from five waves of the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study. We use fixed-effects models to control for unobservable characteristics that do not vary over time, and explore the role of time and of post-separation conditions in mitigating these effects. We find that parental separation has detrimental but small effects on children’s behaviours, and that these effects appear stronger after a couple of years from separation. An intimate relationship between the child and the non-resident father, the presence of a new mother’s partner and of other relatives also play a role. No effect is found on cognitive development.

Parental break-ups and stress: roles of age & family structure in 44 509 pre-adolescent children.

Parental break-up is wide spread, and the effects of parental break-up on children's well-being are known. The evidence regarding child age at break-up and subsequent family arrangements is inconclusive. Aim: to estimate the effects of parental break-up on stress in pre-adolescent children with a specific focus on age at break-up and post-breakup family arrangements. We used data from the Danish National Birth Cohort. Participants included 44 509 children followed from birth to age 11. Stress was self-reported by children at age 11, when the children also reported on parental break-up and post break-up family arrangements. Twenty-one percent of the children had experienced a parental break-up at age 11, and those who had experienced parental break-up showed a higher risk of stress (OR:1.72, 95%CI:1.55;1.91) regardless of the child's age at break-up. Children living in a new family with stepparents (OR = 1.63, 95%CI:1.38;1.92), or shared between the parents (OR = 1.48, 95%CI:1.26;1.75) reported higher stress than children of intact families. Single parent families reported markedly higher stress levels than children in intact families (OR = 2.18, 95%CI:1.90;2.50) and all other family types. Children who were satisfied with their living arrangements post-break-up reported the same stress level as children living in intact families (OR = 1.01, 95%CI:0.86;1.18). Children who experience parental break-up have higher stress levels, also many years after the break-up, and those living in a single parent household post break-up seem to be most vulnerable. Living arrangements post-breakup should be further investigated as a potential protective factor.

Family Structure Experiences and Child Socioemotional Development During the First Nine Years of Life: Examining Heterogeneity by Family Structure at Birth.

A vast amount of literature has documented negative associations between family instability and child development, with the largest associations being in the socioemotional (behavioral) domain. Yet, prior work has paid limited attention to differentiating the role of the number, types, and sequencing of family transitions that children experience, as well as to understanding potential heterogeneity in these associations by family structure at birth. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and hierarchical linear models to examine associations of family structure states and transitions with children's socioemotional development during the first nine years of life. We pay close attention to the type and number of family structure transitions experienced and examine whether associations differ depending on family structure at birth. For children born to cohabiting or noncoresident parents, we find little evidence that subsequent family structure experiences are associated with socioemotional development. For children born to married parents, we find associations between family instability and poorer socioemotional development. However, this largely reflects the influence of parental breakup; we find little evidence that socioemotional trajectories differ for children with various family structure experiences subsequent to their parents' breakup.

Impacto de la ruptura de los progenitores en el estado de salud física de los hijos

The aim of the present study is to assess the risks associated with parental breakup on the children's physical health indicators in relation to adaptive and maladaptive behaviour. A cross-sectional designed study was conducted to assess the physical health indicators of children in relation to the family type (intact homes vs. separated parents). The study was performed in the Primary Healthcare Area of the University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The sample consisted of 467 children and adolescents, of whom 300 (64.2%) were from broken homes, and 167 (35.8%) from intact families. The data on physical health were gathered using a structured interview, the Structured Developmental History of the BASC. Children living with separated parents had approximately double the risk of gastrointestinal, genitourinary, dermatological and neurological disorders than children in intact families. Parental breakup is a risk factor for the children's physical health in terms of genitourinary, gastrointestinal, dermatological, and neurological disorders.

Parental separation and children’s education in a comparative perspective: Does the burden disappear when separation is more common?

Background: Parental breakup has, on average, a net negative effect on children’s education. However, it is unclear whether this negative effect changes when parental separation becomes more common.

The long-term consequences of parental divorce for children’s educational attainment

AbstractBACKGROUNDIn this paper we study the long-term consequences of parental divorce in a comparative perspective. Special attention is paid to the heterogeneity of the consequences of divorce for children's educational attainment by parental education.OBJECTIVEThe study attempts to establish whether the parental breakup penalty for tertiary education attainment varies by socioeconomic background, and whether it depends on the societal context.METHODSData are drawn from the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey, covering 14 countries. We estimate multi-level random-slope models for the completion of tertiary education.RESULTSThe results show that parental divorce is negatively associated with children's tertiary education attainment. Across the 14 countries considered in this study, children of separated parents have a probability of achieving a university degree that is on average seven percentage points lower than that of children from intact families. The breakup penalty is stronger for children of highly educated parents, and is independent of the degree of diffusion of divorce. In countries with early selection into educational tracks, divorce appears to have more negative consequences for the children of poorly educated mothers.CONCLUSIONSFor children in most countries, parental divorce is associated with a lower probability of attaining a university degree. The divorce penalty is larger for children with highly educated parents. This equalizing pattern is accentuated in countries with a comprehensive educational system.COMMENTSFuture research on the heterogeneous consequences of parental divorce should address the issue of self-selection into divorce, which might lead to an overestimation of the negative effect of divorce on students with highly educated parents. It should also further investigate the micro mechanisms underlying the divorce penalty.1. IntroductionStudies of the implications of parental separation for children's well-being have consistently shown that children of divorced parents fare worse on different measures of well-being than children living in intact families (Amato 2001; Amato and Keith 1991) 3. While there is ample evidence that divorce has negative implications for children in the short term, there is less research examining the effect on long-term socioeconomic outcomes (Liu 2007). The consequences of divorce for educational attainment may be of special importance as having a poor education may lead to other socioeconomic and health-related disadvantages, and may therefore persistently undermine an individual's life chances (Ross and Wu 1995; Shavit and Muller 1998). Until relatively recently, research linking family structure and children's well-being has not paid much attention to the moderating effects of socioeconomic background (Demo and Acock 1988). Although newer studies of the consequences of divorce have increasingly controlled for social origin, questions of whether and how the long-term parental breakup penalty for children's educational achievement is related to their socioeconomic background are still largely unanswered (McLanahan, Tach, and Schneider 2013). As Amato (2010: 661) put it, on the average effects of divorce masks the substantial degree of variability that exists in people's adjustment. Finally, possibly due to a lack of adequate data, comparative analyses of cross-country differences in the effects of divorce on children are still rare (but see Dronkers and Harkonen 2008; Engelhardt, Trappe, and Dronkers 2002; Lange, Dronkers, and Wolbers 2009; Pryor and Rodgers 2001).In this paper, we aim to fill these gaps in the literature by focusing on the penalty associated with a parental breakup for tertiary education achievement in a comparative perspective. We do so by bringing together insights from two strands of research: studies on the consequences of divorce and family forms on the one hand, and studies on educational attainment and social mobility on the other. …

Measuring Postdivorce Living Arrangements

In this article, we present a new method for measuring residential arrangements of children following parental divorce. We discuss the limitations of conventional methods for measuring postdivorce residential situations of children, but our principal objective is to present a promising alternative, the residential calendar. We evaluate its utility with data coming from the Leuven Adolescents and Families project, collected from a sample of 878 Flemish adolescents, who have experienced a parental breakup. Several substantive and methodological arguments and supporting analyses illustrate the potential value of the residential calendar for collecting policy-relevant data on the consequences of divorce.

Commentary: Alcohol, child development and harm to others: a 'hard' problem

In epidemiology and public health, as in any other area of science, not all interesting and potentially important questions are equally easy to address. Some are tough and refractory, resisting repeated attempts to answer them convincingly. The impact of breastfeeding on child growth and development is at the hard end of this spectrum. Observational studies are fraught with difficulties, as breastfeeding in many countries is highly socially patterned and strongly linked to a range of maternal characteristics, all of which could confound any of the observed associations. In addition, the risk of reverse causality is substantial (a sick infant will be fed differently). Nevertheless, there remains considerable scientific, policy and public interest in the potential benefits of breastfeeding on reduced risk of obesity, improved neurocognitive performance and cardiovascular risk profile in childhood and later life, to name but a few outcomes. One of the most important recent contributions to this research area has been the PROBIT trial set up in 1996–97 in Belarus. 1 Taking advantage of the newly found openness resulting from the then recent break-up of the Soviet Union (1991–92), this study used an ingenious and pragmatic clusterrandomized design, in which maternity units were allocated to provide either enhanced breastfeeding support or usual practice. During the past few years, this large trial has provided some of the most convincing evidence to date that extended breastfeeding is associated with increased childhood cognition, 2 but appears not to increase stature or reduce blood pressure or adiposity or obesity in childhood. 3,4 This study is now being exploited to see what it can tell us about the impact of parental behaviours and family circumstances on child development. In this issue of the IJE, Yang and Kramer report the results of their analyses of parental drinking and family break-up on childhood cognition and behaviour at 6.5 years of age. 5 Like the impact of breastfeeding,

Family Structure, Family Disruption, and Profiles of Adolescent Religiosity

Youth in the United States are experiencing increasing numbers of family transitions as parents move in and out of marriages and cohabiting relationships. Using three waves of survey data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, I examine the relationship between family structure, parental breakup, and adolescent religiosity. A person-centered measure of the religiosity of adolescents is used to identify youth as Abiders, Adapters, Assenters, Avoiders, or Atheists and to assess movement of youth between the religious profiles between 2003 and 2008. Wave 1 family structure is not significantly related to religious change among adolescents at Wave 3. In contrast, the experience of a parental breakup is related to a change in religious profiles over time. Parental breakup is associated with religious decline among Abiders and Adapters, youth characterized by high levels of religious salience. However, among Assenters who are marginally tied to religion, a parental breakup or divorce is associated with increased religious engagement.

P02-120 - Predictors of dropout from inpatient treatment for eating disorders

IntroductionDrop-out from treatment for Eating Disorders is increasing (Campbell; 2007), and it is a risk factor for relapse and more chronic and severe course of the illness (Fassino et al.; 2009). Drop-out can be caused by interaction of concurrent, individual, familiar ad environmental factors (Sly; 2009).Aim of the studyTo examine possible risk factors of drop-out from inpatient treatment for eating disorders.Materials and methodsThe sample included 41 patients who voluntarily left the treatment before completion (’droppers’) and 88 patients who completed it (’completers’), in the period between 1st January 2006 and 31st December 2009 at Villa Maria Luigia Hospital (Monticelli Terme, PR, Italy). Patients were administered 2 self-report questionnaires and 3 psychometric tests: Eating Disorders Questionnaire, Predisposing, bringing on and maintaining risk factors for eating disorders, EDI-II, BUT, SCL-90.ResultsDroppers appear to be more aggressive (p = 0.022), get worse scholastic results (p = 0.016) and have less friendships and less social interaction (p = 0.021). Parental break-up (p = 0.015), moving house (p = 0.006), father's death (p = 0.005), abortition (p = 0.040), father's alcohol abuse (p = 0.011) and a mother who suffers of eating disorder (p = 0.008) are more frequent in droppers than completers. Catholic religion seems to be a protective factor from drop-out (p = 0.005).ConclusionDrop-out is a multifactor phenomenon; identification of risk factors can improve treatment strategies and outcome.

Family Dissolution and Children's Criminal Careers

This study examines the relationship between family dissolution and children's crimes. The study uses a total population sample of a Norwegian birth cohort born in 1982 ( N = 49,975) and follows them through the crime statistics from ages 10 to 22 years, applying growth curve modelling. Both married and cohabiting parents are considered. There is a large and significant effect from family dissolution that persists after controlling for important economic confounders, even though these also show a high and significant effect. This suggests that, although some of the effect of parental break-up is explained by socioeconomic conditions, there also seems to be an independent and strong effect of family dissolution.

'Absent Fathers' or ‘Reorganized Families’? Variations in Father-Child Contact after Parental Break-Up in Norway

Two trends affect modern fatherhood simultaneously: on the one hand, there is an increased emphasis on paternal involvement in the lives of young children. On the other hand, rates of parental break-up have increased, and fathers often live apart from their children. Norway is a country in which both trends are very strong. This article looks at the patterns of contact between non-resident fathers in Norway and their children, focusing on the extreme ends of the distribution: fathers with weekly contact, and fathers who have not seen their children in three months or more. After a brief overview of recent developments in Norwegian family policies, some key dilemmas and tensions in modern family life are identified. One relate to commitment in cohabiting relationships, another to the tension between commitment to children from previous relationships and new partners. A third factor that is taken into consideration, is poverty. In the empirical analysis, we find no difference in the odds for having frequent/ very infrequent contact between formerly married and formerly cohabiting fathers, nor between fathers who live alone and fathers who have repartnered. Poverty is however a strong indicator of loss of contact.

Children’s Risk of Parental Break-up

Higher proportions of births outside marriage and more family breakdown indicate that children experience increased diversity of family circumstances at birth and during childhood. While England/Wales and Norway have many similar features, there are distinct differences in social and welfare policies. This article compares children’s experiences in the two countries in relation to these policies. Emphasis is put particularly on the impact of consensual unions. Children are the statistical unit and data from surveys and national statistics are compared. In both countries there is considerable risk of family dissolution in the case of children born into consensual unions, but the more so in England/Wales than in Norway. Even though the rate of extramarital births is much higher in Norway than in England/Wales, the corresponding rate of family change is lower. The article suggests that behind parental break-up lies an old pattern of social stratification masked as family change.