Parental separation or divorce is linked to a heightened risk of psychosomatic problems among the children in the family, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. But joint custody seems to be less problematic than sole custody, the findings suggest.
Over the past 20 years, family break-up has become more common in developed countries, with an increasing tendency to award joint legal custody afterwards. In Sweden alone, joint custody has surged from 1-2% of children affected by divorce/separation during the 1980s to 40% in 2010.
Previous research has suggested that children whose parents have split up are more prone to emotional and behavioural problems than those who live in a nuclear family with two co-habiting parents. The researchers therefore used data from a national classroom survey of almost 150,000 Swedish 12 and 15 year olds in a bid to see if children’s domestic living arrangements were linked to a heightened risk of psychosomatic problems.
