Mental and Physical Health Trajectories of Norwegian Parents and Children before and after Union Dissolution

Abstract

The aim was to examine the mental and physical health trajectories of mothers, fathers, and children before and after union dissolution. Register data covering the entire Norwegian population, and including information on consultations with general practitioners in 2006–2018, were used. Constant unobserved characteristics were controlled for with individual fixed effects. As judged by the number of consultations, mothers’ and fathers’ mental health deteriorates before the dissolution but improves immediately afterwards. In contrast, a worsening mental health among children before the dissolution is followed by an even more adverse development afterwards. There is only modest evidence of predissolution increases in noninfectious physical diseases, but more clearly rising numbers afterwards especially for mothers and daughters. Less adverse trends are seen for infections, although mothers experience a sharp temporary increase at the breakup time. On the whole, mothers’ health is more adversely affected by dissolution than that of fathers. Daughters may have a disadvantage compared to sons, but results vary across model specifications. The results suggest that effects on children's health do not operate through parents’ health. With respect to union type, the health changes before and after dissolution of a consensual union are not very different from those before and after marital separation.

Union Status and Disability Pension

“…Divorce is a stressful event which might cause mental and psychosomatic disorders, either in the short term or more permanently. While some studies have shown that mental distress increases during the last years preceding the partnership dissolution and declines after the break-up (Blekesaune, 2008 ; Ding et al, 2021 ; Kravdal & Wörn, 2023 ; Leopold, 2018 ; Van Scheppingen & Leopold, 2020 ), other studies have indicated more long term adverse health consequences of divorce on measures such as contact with primary healthcare services for mental health problems (Reneflot et al, 2020 ), mental distress (Mastekaasa, 1995 ), immune functioning (Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 1987 ) and physical illness (Kravdal & Wörn, 2023 ; Lorenz et al, 2006 ).…”

“…Some studies of the association between union status and health have controlled for constant unobserved individual characteristics in an individual fixed effects analysis, but that requires repeated measurement of health outcomes (such as the annual number of consultations with general practitioners, as in the studies by Kravdal and Wörn ( 2023 ) and Kravdal et al ( 2022 )). Another approach could be to control even better than we have done for genetic selection and family environment by employing information on twins (not adequately available in our data).…”

“…Having lived a large part of life alone, which is most common among the never married, has been linked to a number of health problems (Davidsen et al, 2022 ; Kriegbaum et al, 2009 , 2011 ). Divorce and the underlying relationship problems may cause an immediate and possibly also longer-term deterioration of health (Kravdal & Wörn, 2023 ; Reneflot et al, 2020 ).…”

Genetic susceptibility to depression and the role of partnership status

“…13,23,24 The association between experiencing a stressful life event and mental health is strongest around the time that the event occurred. [40][41][42] Consequently, the moderating effect of partnership status on genetic susceptibility to depression might depend on the relationship quality, relationship duration and time since partnership status change. Future research might benefit from combining structural and subjective indicators for social relationships and investigating possible anticipation and adaptation effects of partnership status transitions to assess the moderating effect of social relationships on the genetic susceptibility to depression.…”

Parental separation risk before and after the diagnosis of a child physical health condition

“…First, reverse causality may occur, with parental separation leading to child physical health conditions. For example, changes in child health following parental separation have been observed by Kravdal and Wörn (2023). Second, the health condition could be endogenous and caused by factors that increase the risk of both separation and developing childhood health conditions (i.e., confounding variables), such as a lack of financial resources (Doyle, Harmon, and Walker 2005).…”