1. The Long Term Effects of Parental Divorce on Mental Health of Young Adults
Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Andrew Cherlin and Kathleen Kiernan
Journal of Child Development,
Volume 66, Issue 6 December 1995, Pages
Alison Brown

2. INTERESTING FACTS
•”Additionally, children have been found to portray more antisocial behavior, and have depression/anxiety after parents divorced compared to children who have parents that are still married “ (Strohschein, 2005).
•”It is believed that the divorce rate has been hovering at close to one half of all first marriages and 60% of second marriages, for the past several decades” (Wallerstein, 2005).
“Evidence shows that, according to Wallerstein (2005) children of divorce including those in their parent’s second marriages are three times as likely as children from intact families to be referred for psychological help by teachers”.

3. Theory
Divorce has negative effects on mental health of young adults.

4. Hypothesis
Parental divorce during childhood will have long term effects on mental health and differences between men and women.

5. Theoretical Construct I
Adult Mental Health
-Corresponding Operational Definition
- Malaise Inventory
Measures relationship between family stress and mental health.
Examples: Depression, anxiety, phobias, and obsessions
• Coded (1)= Divorce (Included Separation)
(2)= Not Divorced
●Measured on a 24 item questionnaire
YES or NO Questionnaire
●A score above 7 “yes” indicates a high likelihood of a mental illness.

6. Theoretical Construct II
School Achievement
Corresponding Operational Definition
Measured by Reading and Math achievement test (standardized exams)
-Overall school performance from teachers ( General GPA)

7. Construct cont… Group Reading Test
A reading achievement test involving both word recognition and sentence completion.
•Mathematics Achievement Test
10 item Questionnaire
Number of correctly answered questions in a 10 question set

8. DESIGN

9. Independent Variable I
Gender
-Qualitative
●Two Levels of Independent Variable I
- Male
- Female

10. Independent Variable II
Divorce
- Qualitative
• 2 Levels
-Divorced, Not Divorced

11. Independent Variable III
Age
Measure at 7, 11, 16, 23

12. Dependent Variable I
Measure of Mental Health

13. Survey consisted of 1,021 mothers and children.
Longitudinal Study
Same group of subjects is repeatedly tested over time.
• High test-retest reliability of .78

14. At the age of 7, 11 and 16, interviews were conducted and information was obtained from the parents, head teachers, and the school health services.
Personality was measured from interviews with the children, mothers and teachers.

15. RESULTS

16. Result cont…
Significant level of p<.01 for children between the ages of 11 and 16.
Raised the Malaise Inventory score for divorce between the ages of 7 and 11 by 14%.
26% from ages

17. More Results…
•Subjects who had parents divorce between the ages of 7 and 16 reported a 24% increase in their mental illness scores.

18. and more…
Subjects tested at age 7 who reported emotional problems saw a 22% increase in dysfunctional health at the age of 23.
Interaction with a significance of p<.0001
•Women reported a 66% higher score than Men.
-Findings are consistent with literature on sex difference in adult emotional problems.
Showing divorce has a stronger negative effect and was greater for women then men.

20. Graph of Parental Divorce and Malaise Inventory

21. DISCUSSION

22. Yes indeed, divorce had negative consequences for both men and women.
Malaise Inventory, validated in numerous other studies and also used for psychiatric assessment.
Some overlap of ages
Could have tested adults in current relationships
Could have tested Fathers
Used adequate ages gaps for measurement.
I would agree with the authors findings