Is Divorce or Family Stress Behind Adult Depression?

Reducing parental mental illness and substance use could improve children’s mental health across generations.

Adults whose parents divorced when they were children are 41% more likely to experience depression later in life, according to a new study of over 128,000 U.S. adults. But the story doesn’t end there — the research suggests parental divorce itself may not be what’s really driving that risk. ()

When researchers accounted for parental mental illness and substance use, the link between childhood divorce and adult depression weakened considerably and was no longer statistically significant.

Study Finds Family Challenges Matter More Than Divorce

“People may assume that divorce itself is what puts children at risk for depression later in life, but our findings suggest the story is far more complex,” said first author Mary Kate Schilke, a university lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Tyndale University.

“The family challenges that often occur alongside divorce, particularly parental mental illness and substance use, appear to be much more important in explaining long-term depression risk.”

Parental Mental Health and Substance Use Shape Children’s Futures

Parental mental illness emerged as a major factor in this study. More than one in five respondents whose parents divorced reported growing up with a parent who experienced mental illness, compared to fewer than one in ten respondents whose parents remained married.

Parental substance use disorders were also much more common among those who experienced parental divorce during childhood than among those whose parents stayed married (35% versus 15%). Parental mental illness and substance use disorders often co-occur with family disruption and may contribute both to relationship strain between parents and to stressful home environments that can have lasting consequences for children’s mental health.

Although parents who experience mental illness and substance use disorder face unique challenges, many can and do create positive home environments for their children, particularly when they are open to receiving support.

Supporting Parents May Improve Children’s Mental Health

“Supporting parents who are struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders may be one of the most effective ways to improve the long-term well-being of their children,” said co-author Philip Baiden, Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. “Our findings underscore the importance of accessible mental health and substance-use services for families.”

The researchers also examined adults whose parents were never married. These adults had 31% higher odds of depression than those whose parents were continuously married (OR=1.31). However, this association was also largely explained by parental mental illness and parental substance use. After accounting for these factors, the association between parental marital status and depression was no longer statistically significant.

“We know remarkably little about the long-term mental health of adults whose parents never married, even though this family background is becoming increasingly common,” said senior author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Institute for Life Course & Aging at the University of Toronto.

“Our findings suggest that the higher risk of depression observed in this group is largely attributable to other childhood adversities, particularly parental mental illness and parental substance use.”

Fuller-Thomson noted that the survey’s measure of “parents not married” combined a wide variety of family situations. It could not distinguish between children raised by cohabiting parents and those raised in single-parent families.

Childhood Experiences Shape Mental Health More Than Divorce

This study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, analyzed data from the 2021–2024 waves of a large U.S. population-based survey. To focus on the association between parental marital status and mental health independent of severe childhood maltreatment, respondents who had experienced childhood physical or sexual abuse were excluded.

The final sample included 128,264 adults aged 18 and older, of whom one-quarter had experienced parental divorce before age 18 and 1.7% had parents who had never married.

Depression was based on adults’ response to the question, “Have you ever been told by a doctor or health professional that you have a depressive disorder (including depression, major depression, dysthymia, or minor depression)?” The prevalence of depression was 14.1% among those with continuously married parents, 19.2% among those whose parents were divorced and 18.7% among those whose parents had never married.

“This study suggests that children’s future mental health is influenced less by their parents’ marital status than by the challenges they experience while growing up,” Fuller-Thomson concludes. “Efforts to reduce parental mental illness and substance use could have benefits that extend far beyond parents themselves and help improve mental health across generations.”

References:

1. Long After the Split: The Association Between Parental Divorce and Mental Health in Adults – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178126003975?via%3Dihub)

Source-Eurekalert