Children's health and their mothers’ risk of divorce or separation

Relationship Status Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Population-Based Study

“…Using data from a national registry, Swaminathan et al (2006) reported married mothers of children with a very low birth weight were twice more likely to become separated/divorced than those with a low to average birth weight child within two years after the birth of their child. Other studies have found similar results suggesting that parents of children with Cerebral Palsy (Joesch and Smith 1997), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Brown and Pacinin 1989;Wymbs et al 2008), as well as Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder (Wymbs et al 2008) have greater marital dissolution as compared to parents of typically developing children. The high risk for divorce associated with many families with a child with an illness/disorder contradicts previous descriptions of low divorce rates among parents of children with ASD.…”

Marital Quality and Families of Children with Developmental Disabilities

“…Several studies indicate that parents of children with DD have an increased risk of divorce as compared to parents of children without DD (Breslau & Davis, 1986; Hartley et al, 2010; Witt, Riley, & Coiro, 2003). However, other studies have not found a higher risk of divorce in parents of children with DD as compared to comparison groups of parents (Freedman, Kalb, Zablotsky, & Stuart, 2011; Joesch & Smith, 1997; Urbano & Hodapp, 2007). In their meta-analysis of six studies examining divorce in parents of children with a variety of different DDs, Risdal and Singer (2004) found that parents of children with DD had an average of 5.97% more divorces than did comparison groups of parents.…”

“…The nature of some DDs may take a heavier toll on marriages than other DDs. In support of the notion that risk of marital discord varies as a function of the nature of the child's DD, within their investigation of families of children with various DDs, Joesch and Smith (1997) found that parents of children with intellectual disability had a lower rate of divorce than parents of children with medical or physical conditions such as congenital heart disease and cerebral palsy.…”

IPEADAM study: Indoor endotoxin exposure, family status, and some housing characteristics in English children

“…Whether it is a proxy for a changed socioeconomic status, 43 an indicator of family psychologic status, 44,45 or both remains to be clarified.…”