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Parental breakup and children’s development: the role of time and of post-separation conditions

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Abstract

In recent years, the relationship between parental separation and child outcomes has received massive attention. This extraordinary level of interest stems from the rise in divorce rates in almost all developed countries. The aim of the paper is to identify the effect of parental separation on child cognitive and behavioural outcomes. It uses data on a sample of around 9000 children up to age 11, drawn from five waves of the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study. We use fixed-effects models to control for unobservable characteristics that do not vary over time, and explore the role of time and of post-separation conditions in mitigating these effects. We find that parental separation has detrimental but small effects on children’s behaviours, and that these effects appear stronger after a couple of years from separation. An intimate relationship between the child and the non-resident father, the presence of a new mother’s partner and of other relatives also play a role. No effect is found on cognitive development.

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Notes

  1. Although our study does not consider mothers who had their baby while living alone, these mothers are an important part of the picture concerning parental separation and child outcomes. Kiernan and Mensah (2010) investigate the effects of different family trajectories in the first 5 years of life, finding that never-partnered lone mothers represent the most economically disadvantaged families, with detrimental consequences for their children’s well-being.

  2. Information about the survey design, sampling, data collection, and question domains can be found in the on-line survey documents http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/Default.aspx (Institute of Education, London).

  3. We also perform analyses using a lag of 1 or 3 years instead of 2.

  4. We can exclude widowed mothers but we cannot exclude mothers who were never in a couple with the father of the child, which would better resemble the characteristics of our sample.

  5. Results available upon request.

  6. We cannot estimate the effects on Naming vocabulary since we do not have information of the relationship between the child and the non-resident father in wave 2.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC Grant agreement n°201194-CODEC, which is gratefully acknowledged. Our thanks go also to participants to seminars at Dondena, at the department of Economics in Salerno, at the department of Statistics in Padua, and participants to the Divorce conference in Milan, and to the Alp Pop conference in La Thuile. Any error should be attributed to the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Turin, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Dondena, Lungo Dora Siena 100, 10153, Torino, Italy

    Chiara Pronzato

  2. Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Bocconi University, Dondena, Via Roengten 1, 10136, Milano, Italy

    Arnstein Aassve

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  1. Chiara Pronzato
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Correspondence to Chiara Pronzato.

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Appendix: Questions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Appendix: Questions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Emotion Symptoms Scale

Complains of headaches/stomach aches/sickness

 

Often seems worried

 

Often unhappy

 

Nervous or clingy in new situations

 

Many fears easily scared

Conduct problems

Often has temper tantrums

 

Generally obedient*

 

Fights with or bullies other children

 

Can be spiteful to others

 

Often argumentative with adults

Hyperactivity Scale

Restless, overactive, cannot stay still for long

 

Constantly fidgeting

 

Easily distracted

 

Can stop and think before acting*

 

Sees tasks through to the end*

Peer Problems

Tends to play alone

 

Has at least one good friend*

 

Generally liked by other children*

 

Picked on or bullied by other children

 

Gets on better with adults

Pro-social Scale

Considerate of others’ feelings

 

Shares readily with others

 

Helpful if someone is hurt, upset or ill

 

Kind to younger children

 

Often volunteers to help others

  1. Notes: the possible answers to these questions are: “not true”, “somewhat true”, “certainly true” which count respectively 0, 1, 2 scores. For the questions marked with * scores are reversed.

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Pronzato, C., Aassve, A. Parental breakup and children’s development: the role of time and of post-separation conditions. Rev Econ Household 17, 67–87 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9396-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9396-7

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