In recent years abductions during divorce custody and access disputes have received greater attention from both the lay and medical press. However, little has been written on the psychopathology of the abductors or the impact on children of being kidnapped by a parent. In this study 20 cases of abduction, involving 20 parents and 37 children, were examined after the children had been located and returned to the custodial parent. Characteristics of the abduction and psychopathology seen in the children are compared to those of a control population. The outcome of assessments conducted by the family court clinic after the abductions are profiled.
The present study, which is part of a multipurpose study on alcohol use among women, focuses on the association between education, occupation, family structure and development of alcohol dependence or abuse in women. A total of 316 women were selected by stratified random sampling from all women in a defined part of Gothenburg, Sweden. In a face to face interview, questions were asked about occupation, education, family structure and other variables reflecting socioeconomic conditions and relations within the family. As outcome measures we used alcohol dependence and abuse (ADA), diagnosed in a clinical interview according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R). We found that never having been married, or having poor communication with the spouse, as well as having no children at home to take care of, were strongly associated with ADA in women. The role of social class depended on whether education or occupation was used as a measure. Our findings are compatible with the hypothesis that development of alcohol-related problems among women to a large extent is influenced by matters that relate to home and private life.
This Law amends the Marriage and Divorce Act of Denmark to provide that a spouse has the right to obtain a divorce when the other spouse deliberately has committed serious violence toward the first spouse or the children.
This Danish law authorizes persons of the same sex to register their partnership and be treated legally in most cases as persons in heterosexual partnerships are treated, notably with respect to marriage, divorce, succession, and social and tax laws. Nonetheless, persons in such partnerships are not treated the same as heterosexuals with respect to adoption of children and the right to obtain a religious celebration of their partnership.
Divorce is associated with an increased probability of a depressive episode, but the causation of events remains unclear. Adaptive models of depression propose that depression is a social strategy in part, whereas non-adaptive models tend to propose a diathesis-stress mechanism. We compare an adaptive evolutionary model of depression to three alternative non-adaptive models with respect to their ability to explain the temporal pattern of depression around the time of divorce. Register-based data (304,112 individuals drawn from a random sample of 11% of Finnish people) on antidepressant purchases is used as a proxy for depression. This proxy affords an unprecedented temporal resolution (a 3-monthly prevalence estimates over 10 years) without any bias from non-compliance, and it can be linked with underlying episodes via a statistical model. The evolutionary-adaptation model (all time periods with risk of divorce are depressogenic) was the best quantitative description of the data. The non-adaptive stress-relief model (period before divorce is depressogenic and period afterwards is not) provided the second best quantitative description of the data. The peak-stress model (periods before and after divorce can be depressogenic) fit the data less well, and the stress-induction model (period following divorce is depressogenic and the preceding period is not) did not fit the data at all. The evolutionary model was the most detailed mechanistic description of the divorce-depression link among the models, and the best fit in terms of predicted curvature; thus, it offers most rigorous hypotheses for further study. The stress-relief model also fit very well and was the best model in a sensitivity analysis, encouraging development of more mechanistic models for that hypothesis.
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Cites: Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Oct;164(10):1521-9; quiz 162217898343
This study investigates the long-term effects of parental divorce on adolescent psychological adjustment and well-being, and to what extent the effects are accounted for by parental psychological distress. Data were collected among 8,984 Norwegian adolescents (13-19 years) and their parents. Outcome variables were symptoms of anxiety and depression, subjective well-being, and three areas of school problems. Parental divorce was found to be associated with both higher mean levels and larger variances in adolescent problems. Divorce and parental distress contributed independently to adolescent distress, supporting the notion of "double exposure" effects. The prevalence of adolescents with substantial distress symptoms was 14% among those with non-distressed non-divorced parents and 30% among those with divorced and distressed parents. In general effects remained when controlling for demographic factors. Long-term effects of divorce on symptoms of anxiety and depression were stronger among girls than among boys.
We examined mid-adolescent psychosocial problems as risk factors for subsequent depression up to adulthood proper, and differences in these for episodic and persistent depression.
In a 16-year follow-up of an urban Finnish community cohort (547 males and 714 females) from age 16 years risk factors for subsequent depression (S-BDI) were studied. Data were collected with a classroom questionnaire at 16 years and a postal questionnaire at 22 and 32 years. Differences in predictors for episodic depression (only at age of 22 or 32 y) and persistent depression (both at 22 and 32 y) were studied using logistic and multinomial regression analyses.
Mid-adolescent depressive symptoms predicted persistent and female sex episodic depression. Low self-esteem, dissatisfaction with academic achievement, problems with the law, having no dating experiences, and parental divorce all predicted both episodic and persistent depression.
We had two assessment points in adulthood, but no information about depression between these.
The associations between mid-adolescent psychosocial problems and subsequent depression extended up to adulthood proper, somewhat differently for episodic and persistent depression. Preventive efforts should be focused towards young people at risk.
**This is a prospective Norwegian study of a group of adolescents with an experience of parental divorce or separation (n=413) and a comparison group without this experience (n=1758). Mean age at T1 was 14.4 years and mean age at T2 was 18.4 years. Parental divorce was prospectively associated with a relative change in anxiety and depression, subjective well-being, self-esteem, and school problems. Considering boys separately, parental divorce was prospectively associated only with school problems. Among the girls, divorce was prospectively associated with all variables. The effect of divorce on relative change was partially mediated by paternal absence.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Department, Mental Health Hospital and University Clinic, Region of Southern Denmark, University of Southern Denmark , Sdr. Boulevard 29, DK-5000 Odense C , Denmark.
The aim of the study was to identify risk factors for significant changes in emotional and behavioural problem load in a community-based cohort of Danish children aged 9-16 years, the risk factors being seven parental and two child-related adverse life events.
Data on emotional and behavioural problems was obtained from parents filling in the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) when the child was 8-9 and again when 15 years old. Data on risk factors was drawn from Danish registers. Analysis used was logistic regression for crude and adjusted change.
Parental divorce significantly raised the odds ratio of an increase in emotional and behavioural problems; furthermore, the risk of deterioration in problem behaviour rose significantly with increasing number of adverse life events. By dividing the children into four groups based on the pathway in problem load (increasers, decreasers, high persisters and low persisters), we found that children with a consistently high level of behavioural problems also had the highest number of adverse life events compared with any other group.
Family break-up was found to be a significant risk factor. This supports findings in previous studies. The fact that no other risk factor proved to be of significance might be due to lack of power in the study. Children experiencing high levels of adverse life events are at high risk of chronic problem behaviour. Thus these risk factors should be assessed in daily clinical practice.
This paper analyzes the probability of a married couple getting divorced, based on the age difference between the husband and wife. To calculate such probabilities, the distribution of age differences of married couples was derived from the 1991 Census and the 1990 General Social Survey, and the distribution of age differences of divorcing couples was obtained from 1991 divorce data provided by the Department of Justice Canada. These distributions, the first based on data that are seldom available, are also analyzed in this paper. The results provide details about the expected significant imbalances that exist, both for married and divorcing couples, between the number of couples with older husbands and the number with older wives. A model is developed that shows that divorce rates are lowest when the husband is two to ten years older than the wife or when the magnitude of their age difference is extremely large. Furthermore, the chance of divorce is much higher when the wife is older than the husband than vice versa. The demands on a younger spouse--usually the wife--to provide informal health care for an older spouse are briefly discussed.
