Children whose parents divorce before age five face significantly lower earnings and heightened risks of teen pregnancy and incarceration later in life, according to a new study.
Reported by Mike Schneider of the Associated Press, the study’s findings are the result of a major collaboration between researchers at the University of California, Merced, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the University of Maryland. The team used a trove of linked federal tax, Social Security, and census records to follow children born between 1988 and 1993, analyzing various consequences their parents’ divorces had on their adult lives.
The study’s authors noted that divorce often triggers a series of life-altering disruptions, not just a legal separation.
“These changes in family life reveal that, rather than an isolated legal shock, divorce represents a bundle of treatments — including income loss, neighborhood changes, and family restructuring — each of which might affect children’s outcomes,” the authors wrote.
According to the study, children whose parents divorced early were found to be more likely to experience teen pregnancy — especially if the divorce occurred before age 15 — and faced an increased risk of incarceration, though these effects were not observed if the divorce took place after the child reached early adulthood.
The study also found that by age 27, adults who had experienced their parents’ divorce at age five or younger earned 13% less than peers whose parents stayed together during their early childhood. Divorce after a child turns 18, on the other hand, had virtually no impact on long-term earnings.
In their conclusion, the authors wrote, “Given that divorce has negative effects on children’s outcomes and is more prevalent among low-income families, addressing its impacts may be crucial for reducing the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.”
Although the study didn’t evaluate emotional trauma caused by divorce, its implications were echoed by people like Brandon Hellan, a Missouri man who shared with the Associated Press that his parents’ split in his twenties delayed his own trust in relationships for years.
“I really think my parents’ divorce made me put up these walls and treat relationships like they were rentals, temporary,” Hellan said.
According to the Associated Press, the US divorce rate has declined in recent years — from over 10% in 2008 to around 7% in 2022 — yet nearly one in three American children still experience the separation of their parents.