Divorce 'harms children long after separation'

Divorce has damaging effects on children that extend long after parental separation, researchers say.

A Swedish study of 65,000 children living with single parents during the 1990s found that over the long term they were at increased risk of psychiatric disorder, suicide, drink and drugs. Previous research has suggested that the ill effects of divorce on children tend to be short lived.

The key risk factor appears to be poverty, according to the study authors, Gunilla Weitfot and colleagues, from the National Board of Health and Welfare in Stockholm, writing in The Lancet.

Margaret Whitehead and Paula Holland of the University of Liverpool say in an editorial that to generalise the findings is difficult "because of differing prevailing sociological environments in different countries".