The Long Term Effects of Parental Divorce on Mental Health of Young Adults

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The Long Term Effects of Parental Divorce on
Mental Health of Young Adults

• Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Andrew Cherlin and
  Kathleen Kiernan
• Journal of Child Development,
• Volume 66, Issue 6 December 1995, Pages 1614-1634

Alison Brown
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INTERESTING FACTS
Additionally, children have been found to
portray more antisocial behavior, and have
depression/anxiety after parents divorced
compared to children who have parents that are
still married (Strohschein, 2005). It is
believed that the divorce rate has been hovering
at close to one half of all first marriages and
60 of second marriages, for the past several
decades (Wallerstein, 2005). Evidence shows
that, according to Wallerstein (2005) children of
divorce including those in their parents second
marriages are three times as likely as children
from intact families to be referred for
psychological help by teachers.
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Theory

• Divorce has negative effects on mental health of
  young adults.

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Hypothesis

• Parental divorce during childhood will have long
  term effects on mental health and differences
  between men and women.

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Theoretical Construct I

• Adult Mental Health
• -Corresponding Operational Definition
• - Malaise Inventory
• Measures relationship between family stress and
  mental health.
• Examples Depression, anxiety, phobias, and
  obsessions
• Coded (1) Divorce (Included Separation)
• (2) Not Divorced
• ?Measured on a 24 item questionnaire
• YES or NO Questionnaire
• ?A score above 7 yes indicates a high
  likelihood of a mental illness.

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Theoretical Construct II

• School Achievement
• Corresponding Operational Definition
• Measured by Reading and Math
  achievement test (standardized exams)
• -Overall school performance from teachers (
  General GPA)

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Construct cont

• Group Reading Test
• A reading achievement test involving both word
  recognition and sentence completion.
• Mathematics Achievement Test
• 10 item Questionnaire
• Number of correctly answered questions in a 10
  question set

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DESIGN
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Independent Variable I

• Gender
• -Qualitative
• ?Two Levels of Independent Variable I
• - Male
• - Female

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Independent Variable II

• Divorce
• - Qualitative
• 2 Levels
• -Divorced, Not Divorced

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Independent Variable III

• Age
• Measure at 7, 11, 16, 23

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Dependent Variable I

• Measure of Mental Health

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• Survey consisted of 1,021 mothers and children.
• Longitudinal Study
• Same group of subjects is repeatedly tested over
  time.
• High test-retest reliability of .78

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• At the age of 7, 11 and 16, interviews were
  conducted and information was obtained from the
  parents, head teachers, and the school health
  services.
• Personality was measured from interviews with the
  children, mothers and teachers.

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RESULTS
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Result cont

• Significant level of plt.01 for children between
  the ages of 11 and 16.
• Raised the Malaise Inventory score for divorce
  between the ages of 7 and 11 by 14.
• 26 from ages 11-16.

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More Results

• Subjects who had parents divorce between the
  ages of 7 and 16 reported a 24 increase in their
  mental illness scores.

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and more

• Subjects tested at age 7 who reported emotional
  problems saw a 22 increase in dysfunctional
  health at the age of 23.
• Interaction with a significance of plt.0001
• Women reported a 66 higher score than Men.
• -Findings are consistent with literature on sex
  difference in adult emotional problems.
• Showing divorce has a stronger negative effect
  and was greater for women then men.

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Graph of Parental Divorce and Malaise Inventory
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DISCUSSION
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• Yes indeed, divorce had negative consequences for
  both men and women.
• Malaise Inventory, validated in numerous other
  studies and also used for psychiatric assessment.
  
• Some overlap of ages
• Could have tested adults in current relationships
• Could have tested Fathers
• Used adequate ages gaps for measurement.
• I would agree with the authors findings