Are You More Likely To Divorce If Your Parents Divorced?

The effects of divorce on children are still the subject of a whole range of studies. Some find that the effects are present even in adulthood when children grow up into adults statistically more likely to end up divorced themselves.  

This conclusion is an easy one to make.  Parents are a primary influence on the behaviour of their children and they will help set the examples to follow in adulthood. If parents end up divorced or separated, then the assumption is that when their children grow into adults, they will be more likely to consider divorce themselves.  

This link has indeed been well established over the years, however a recent study by the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and Lund University in Sweden has found that that this link doesn’t exist for one particular group of children.  

The study found that divorce rates among adopted individuals is more closely aligned with their biological parents than it is with the parents who brought them up.  

This presents compelling evidence that the likelihood of divorce is linked to genetics rather than environmental impacts and the normalisation of divorce.  

So the unfortunate conclusion to be drawn from the study is, that if you are considering marriage, then the chances of that marriage failing will be higher if the biological parents of your spouse kept their marriage together.