(NewsNation) — Childhood divorce, specifically for young children, can lead to significantly greater challenges later in life, new research suggests.
Children who experience parental divorce at age 5 or younger face lower incomes, an increase in teenage pregnancy, death at a young age and incarceration, according to economists from the University of California, Merced; the U.S. Census Bureau; and the University of Maryland.
“Generally, the worst divorces are early childhood divorces,” said Andrew Johnston, associate professor of economics at the University of Texas and co-author of the study. “They generally become less adverse to the child as the kid ages and develops.”
90% of brains develop by age 5: CDC
The study compared outcomes among siblings by the amount of time a childhood was spent with divorced parents. It found that children whose parents divorced when they were age 5 or younger had a 13% smaller income by age 27, but there was little or no impact if the child was older than 18 when their parents divorced.
“We suspect that it’s really about risky behaviors,” Johnston said.
A parental divorce increased the chances of teen pregnancy if it took place before the child was 15 years old. But that effect disappeared by age 20, as did the impact of any divorce on the chances of incarceration. There was also no noticeable effect on a child of divorce getting married by age 25, according to the study.
The impact of divorce was similar across demographic groups.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 90% of a child’s brain development occurs by age 5.
“When a divorce disrupts those developments, and one of the parents is missing or temporarily out, in and out in the kid’s life, that’s definitely having an effect on the kid’s development in [an] emotional, mental, physical way,” said Blanka Molnar, the founder of AwareNest.
The economists’ study can’t show the emotional impact of divorce, but some children of divorce said its impact resonated through adulthood, no matter what age they were when it happened.
What drives the impact?
According to the study, three events — loss of financial resources, a decline in neighborhood quality and missing parental involvement because of distance or an increased workload required to make up for lost income — accounted for 25% to 60% of divorce’s impact on children’s outcomes.
Finances play a significant role. In the 10 years following divorce, the study found, parents often work longer hours to take on multiple jobs to transition from a two-income to a single-income household.
Families are nearly three times more likely to move, usually to less affluent neighborhoods, according to the study.
Should parents stay together for the kids?
Despite the data, experts caution against staying in a relationship solely because of their children.
“Even if you pretend that you are together and you are loving each other just for the sake of staying together for the kids, kids are better at understanding emotions, picking up experiences, and the relationships than we actually give credit to them for,” Molnar said.
Experts advocate for conscious co-parenting, emotional presence and financial planning.
The U.S. divorce rate has been declining for the past decade and a half, going from more than 10% in 2008 to about 7% in 2022, according to the Census Bureau.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.