Psychological Effects of Parental Divorce in Adulthood

Authors

Alexander Wambach, Brigham Young University
Dr. Kevin Shafer, Brigham Young University

Keywords

parental divorce, adult children, psychological effects

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

Abstract

The United States has experienced a greying of divorce over the last 25 years. During this period, the divorce rate among couples aged 50 and older doubled, and almost 25 percent of divorces that took place in 2010 involved someone 50 years of age or older (Brown and Lin 2013). Many of these older divorcing couples are likely to have children who are already adults at the time the divorce takes place. Qualitative evidence indicates the adult children of late-life divorce are negatively impacted in some way (Greenwood 2012). I hypothesized that adults who have a parent that is recently divorced will score higher on a depression scale than those who do not.

Recommended Citation

Wambach, Alexander and Shafer, Dr. Kevin (2018) "Psychological Effects of Parental Divorce in Adulthood," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2018: Iss. 1, Article 80.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2018/iss1/80