Consequences of Divorce for Children: Effects of Conflict Level and Parental Marital Satisfaction Prior to Divorce

A large number of studies have investigated the consequences of divorce for children, and shown that divorce has detrimental effects for children. Only recently, however, have studies begun to address a neglected phenomenon: the effect of satisfaction and conflict levels in couples (i.e. happily married couples versus those with high conflict). Previous studies indicated that, for these satisfied couples, divorce has a tremendously negative impact on various outcomes for children as they cannot understand why their parents separate. This question has only been addressed in the U.S. Thus, in this study, we addressed this research question for the first time in Europe. Children whose parents had low and high conflict were compared to each other on a variety of dimensions, including: emotional problems, conduct problems, problems with peers and school performance after separation of their parents. Results support previous findings, indicating that divorce generally has negative consequences for children, but does not confirm that children from parents with low conflict level show more severe negative consequences than those of parents with high conflict level. Implications of these results for European families are addressed.