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Parental Divorce, Familial Risk for Depression, and Psychopathology in Offspring: A Three-Generation Study

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Abstract

Research suggests a link between parental divorce and negative child outcomes; however, the presence of parental depression may confound this relationship. Studies exploring the simultaneous effects of depression and parents’ divorce on the adjustment of their children are scarce and rarely have a longitudinal design. This is the first three-generation study of the relative effects of depression and divorce on offspring psychopathology, based on data from a 25-year longitudinal study with families at high and low risk for depression. One hundred seventy-eight grandchildren (mean age = 13.9 years) of depressed and nondepressed parents and grandparents were evaluated by raters blind to their parents’ and grandparents’ clinical status. We found that in both low and high-risk children, divorce had a limited impact on child adjustment over and above familial risk for depression. Divorce had a significant effect on child outcomes only among high-risk grandchildren with a depressed grandparent and non-depressed parents, with this group showing a threefold risk for anxiety disorders. Results support previous findings suggesting that familial risk for depression largely overshadows the effect of parental divorce on child psychopathology. Possible reasons for the lack of association between divorce and child psychopathology among low-risk offspring are discussed.

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Acknowledgment

This study was supported by R01 MH-036197 from the National Institute of Mental Health (Myrna Weissman, PI). Helen Verdeli is supported by National Institute of Mental Health K23 Award (MH071530).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th street, BOX 102, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Eleni Vousoura, Helen Verdeli & Charles David Richard Baily

  2. Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Helen Verdeli

  3. Division of Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Virginia Warner & Priya Wickramaratne

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Priya Wickramaratne

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  1. Eleni Vousoura
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  2. Helen Verdeli
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  3. Virginia Warner
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  4. Priya Wickramaratne
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  5. Charles David Richard Baily
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Correspondence to Eleni Vousoura.

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Vousoura, E., Verdeli, H., Warner, V. et al. Parental Divorce, Familial Risk for Depression, and Psychopathology in Offspring: A Three-Generation Study. J Child Fam Stud 21, 718–725 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-011-9523-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-011-9523-7

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