Lasting effects of divorce on children 

From an article by The Institute of Family Studies

That children are affected by divorce is quite clear. But while the immediate effects of divorce go mostly undisputed, many doubt that divorce has a lasting impact into adulthood. Whatever discrepancies that exist between children from intact families and children with divorced parents can be explained, the argument goes, by factors other than or surrounding the divorce. 

A working paper, "Divorce, Family Arrangements, and Children's Adult Outcomes" analysed tax records for over 5 million children born between 1988 and 1993 in the USA - following the lives of children whose parents divorced, measuring income, child mortality, teen birth rates, incarceration, and college residency. 

What makes this study particularly robust is its use of one million sibling groups whose parents divorced. By comparing siblings, the authors can see how divorce affects, say, a 10-year-old versus an 18-year-old within the same family. 

Furthermore, the study examines three distinctive effects that come during and immediately after divorce for families: declines in household income, declines in neighbourhood quality, and increased distances between non-resident parents. These explain negative outcomes associated with divorce are not merely from underlying household issues, but from the act of separation itself.

The findings:

1. Income
Leading up to a divorce, average income is between $90,000 to $100,000 (£75,000) for the family. But following divorce, household income falls to $42,000 (£32,000), less than half. While household incomes generally recover in the period following divorce, they remain about 30% below their pre-divorce level even after a decade.

This income loss has a number of downstream effect; a decline in resources available for the child, financial pressures, housing quality, increased working hours. Specifically, fathers work 16% more hours, and mothers work 8% more hours after the family splits up. Fathers' work hours continue to rise over the decade after divorce. This, we can reasonably conclude, means less time and flexibility for the kids.

2. Relocation and separation
With a divorce also comes a move. Parents split, and at least one parent needs to find a new home. The authors found that 35% of children change addresses in the year of the divorce, a rate nearly three times higher than pre-divorce. The median distance between non-resident parents (in the vast majority of cases, the dad) is 4 miles in the year of the divorce, with the average distance between parents at over 100 miles. This suggests that a substantial portion of divorces result in extreme distance between parent and child. The elevated move-rate persists even through the decade following a divorce, with the median distance between parents growing to 10 miles, and the average growing to over 200 miles.

3. Lower quality neighbourhoods
Children generally move to lower-quality neighbourhoods, often with their mothers. This represents a real decline in standard of living.

4. Poor child outcomes
Divorce has a tangible negative impact on factors relevant to child outcomes. These effects, for the most part, are felt immediately and continue to be felt year-after-year. 

Consider income. Those who experience an early-childhood divorce earn about $2,500 ($2000) less at age 25 than those whose parents divorced at a later age - 25. This represents a 9% decrease relative to average earnings at that age. By 27, they earn about 13% less, suggesting that the effect of early-childhood divorce on future income persists with age. 

Teen birth rates also rise for children of divorce. Before a divorce, teen birth rates hover around 7 births per 1,000 girls annually, and dip right at the divorce. But following a divorce, teen birth rates climb, rising to 13 teen births per 1,000 girls annually. Child mortality also increases: the authors note that following a divorce, there is a “sharp and persistent” increase in child mortality of 10 to 15 additional deaths per 100,000 children per year. 

These results reveal substantial effects of divorce on children’s outcomes. The magnitude of the effects - a 35% to 55% increase in mortality and up to a 63% increase in teen births - underscores how divorce can dramatically reshape children’s outcomes, potentially through changes in resources, supervision, and family dynamics.

It is quite clear, then, that parental divorce is associated with negative outcomes for children. This study provides further evidence that lasting marriages matter, especially for child well-being.

Read the full article here.

Divorce/Separation is one of 10 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and research shows that this also then results in other ACEs e.g. parent misusing drugs or alcohol. See the research here.