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... was significantly more prevalent among those who had experienced parental divorce in latency as compared with those who had experienced it before school age or in adolescence. The prevalence in the two latter groups was very close to that of males from non-divorced families. Among females, the time of parental divorce was not associated with the prevalence of depression in young adulthood. Depression was significantly more common in all groups than among females from non-divorced families. Further, heavy drinking among men in the latency group was found to be significantly more common (59 % vs. 49 % in the group under school age, and 31 % in the adolescent group) (Kiernan & Hobcraft, 425).
Simultaneously, there was no evidence of adaptation differences in adolescence; only minor differences were observed in psychosomatic symptoms and in self-esteem among girls. At the age of 16, girls tended to have fewer symptoms and higher self-esteem if they were older at the time of separation. Further, school performance, heavy alcohol consumption, and dating behavior did not differ significantly by the time of parental divorce. Attempting to find an explanation for the increased prevalence of depression among latency-aged boys, school performance, alcohol consumption, and interpersonal problems in adolescence were examined.
The inclusion of these factors in the model was supported by earlier research on the impact of parental divorce and by preliminary analyses. Earlier results indicated that school performance declines for some time after parental divorce (Wallerstein, 121). Good school performance was also assumed to be protective against psychopathology because it may reduce the impact of the risk and negative life-chain reactions, or open new opportunities. Heavy alcohol consumption by adolescents is often associated with developmental risk, and recent theories on the etiology and pathology of depression attach particular importance to impaired and unsatisfactory interrelationships. In the long-linear model developed by Kiernan and Hobcraft, heavy alcohol consumption was associated with an increase in interpersonal problems, but not directly with timing of divorce or with later depression (Kiernan & Hobcraft, 427).
Boys who drank heavily also had frequent problems in their relationships. However, poor school performance did not explain high prevalence of depression among latency-aged boys in this model. The essential message of the model was the association among interpersonal problems, depression, and timing of divorce. Interpersonal problems in adolescence were a significant indicator of risk for later depression in the group whose parents had divorced when the boys were in latency. If the divorce occurred before school age or in adolescence, interpersonal problems in adolescence did not indicate a risk of later depression.
The study by Kiernan and Hobcraft used a representative sample of mainly urban young people from all social classes. From the critical standpoint, it is necessary to assess the importance of all findings. Information about developmental turning points and interpersonal relationships and behavior is of central importance in understanding life processes. Evaluations during the transition stages of adolescence and young adulthood are of great interest in this respect. Wallerstein and her colleagues found that depression is common symptom among young adults who had experienced parental divorce in latency years.
This is supported by the present findings for males. Compared with the other results which showed at most only minor differences related to the timing of divorce, this was a significant finding; at the transitional time of young adulthood, these boys were more vulnerable to depression than were their peers. However, as this was a post-hoc finding and the only indicator of differences related to the timing of divorce, it needs to be confirmed by other studies. Among females the timing of parental divorce was not associated with later well-being. One possible explanation for the differences in prevalence of depression may lie in psychological development and in the current phase of the family life cycle in families with latency-aged boys. The role of interpersonal problems as a mediating factor is consistent with recent theoretical views related to depression.
Deficiencies in social problem-solving ability, in learning social skills, and nonreciprocal expectations from significant others and unsuccessful role transition appear to be connected with depression. At about age eight, self-esteem is thought to change from physical to more psychological, from unstable and situational to more stable. Children also begin to compare themselves with others instead of evaluating themselves in absolute terms. The stress in latency may disturb psychological development in these respects. Difficulties in leaving home and starting school may continue as difficulties in interpersonal relationships at age 16 and as depression in young adulthood.
On the other hand, it is possible that the life trajectory of those who experience parental divorce in latency differs from that of other groups. The probability of remarriage, career prospects, and financial situations vary between families with children of different ages. Latency-aged children may be more involved in parental disputes and more confused about the issues than are children of other ages (Johnston, Campbell, & Mayes, 570). Compared with boys whose parents divorced in early childhood, the latency-aged boys may also have had a longer exposure to family discord and less cognitive and coping abilities than older children. If this is true, it might help to explain sex differences.
Boys have been shown to be more vulnerable than girls to family discord. With regard findings observed during various studies, the minor differences observed in behavior, adaptation, and life situation in adolescence and adulthood suggest that the timing of divorce has a limited effect on later well-being. The differences in well-being of young people from non divorced and divorced families must be explained by factors other than the timing of divorce. In addition to the stress experienced during the divorce process, other factors are probably of greater importance in the long-term impact of divorce, such as long-standing changes in life trajectories. The systematic pattern of association between family disruption and socioeconomic status reflects the underlying interconnected relations between family structure and economic disadvantage. Consequently, economic hardship predisposes marital strain and dissolution, and single-parent families become at greater risk of experiencing financial difficulties.
Practically, both of these factors contributed independently to an individuals lifetime risk of depression. Thus, although the socioeconomic circumstances of children frequently decline after changes in parental marital status, such declines do not constitute the sole reason that family disruption is predictive of depression. Young men and women who experienced parental divorce during childhood were characterized as inclined to enter their first marriage or cohabiting relationship at an earlier age. Moreover, studies reported that they are also likely to have their first birth, within or outside such a partnership, at a younger age. As the study examined British sample indicated, earlier sexual activity among the children of divorced parents almost entirely elucidates youthful first partnerships and is an important factor in early childbearing (Rutter, 239).
Some previous studies have revealed that girls who grow up without a father in the home begin menstruating at younger ages than girls whose father is present, and other research has connected early inclination to initiate sexual intercourse. Parental divorce impacts significantly on the age at which both women and men entered their first partnership and began childbearing. Women from divorced families were reported almost 50 % more likely than those from intact families to have their first marital or cohabiting relationship before age 20 (Rutter, 241). Moreover, women were twice as likely to have become teenage mothers.
Men grown up in disrupted families were reported 50 % more likely than those from intact families to have formed their first partnership before age 22 and almost twice as likely to have become parents before that age. To assess whether women and men from disrupted families were more likely than those from intact families to have had a child outside an established partnership, several studies classified the respondents as having had a child before, after or around the time they began their first partnership. Women from disrupted families were more than three times as likely as those from the families with intact parents to have had a child before their first union. Simultaneously, men from divorced families were almost three times as likely as men from intact families to have become fathers before the beginning of the first partnership. During numerous studies specific statistical analyses were used to assess the pathways through which early parental divorce influenced the age at which individuals initiated sexual activity, partnership formation and childbearing.
Thus for every result, the researchers employed a baseline analysis that controlled only for birth cohort. Therefore, in the mentioned analysis for age at first intercourse, men from disrupted families were 50 % more likely than those from intact families to have had intercourse before age 17. Although the size of this effect was reduced when the influence of parental attitudes was accounted for, the effect was considered to be significant. Surprisingly, among women, the effect remained even stronger: Those whose parents had divorced were 71 % more likely than those from intact families to have had sex before age 17 (Rutter, 249).
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