The Negative Impact of Adult Children’s Marital Dissolution on Older Parents’ Mental Health in South Korea

Abstract

Objective Little is known about whether and the extent children’s marital dissolution deteriorates older parents’ mental health. This study examines the association of children’s marital dissolution with parents’ mental health, and whether children’s gender and intergenerational contact and support moderate such an association in South Korea, where family lives are strongly linked under the Confucian collectivistic legacy. Methods We apply fixed effects models on 15,584 parent-child dyads nested in 5,673 older parents (45–97 years in Wave 1) participating in the four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), conducted from 2006 to 2012. Results In South Korea, a son's transition to marital dissolution is associated with higher levels of parents’ depressive symptoms. Frequent parent-son contacts of at least once a week, living with a son, and increasing financial transfers from parents to a son tend to reduce the negative association of the son’s marital dissolution with parents’ depressive symptoms. Discussion The findings imply that a son’s transition to marital dissolution, as a later-life stressor, is detrimental to parents’ mental health in a patrilineal Asian cultural context. The study also highlights the importance of intergenerational bonding in mitigating the negative impact of children’s marital dissolution upwardly transmitted to their older parents.

Children's strains, parents' pains? How adult children's union dissolution influences older parents' health

“…In line with recent longitudinal studies on the mental effects of children's divorce (e.g., Kalmijn & de Graaf, 2012;Ko & Sung, 2022;Tosi & Albertini, 2019), we found that a child's union dissolution is generally associated with increased parental depression, frailty, and grip strength weakness. These results lend support to our first hypothesis (Hypothesis 1).…”

“…Longitudinal studies have provided empirical evidence for a stronger effect of children's union dissolution on mothers' mental well-being (Kalmijn & de Graaf, 2012), though other studies did not find such a gender differential effect (Ko & Sung, 2022;Milkie et al, 2008;Tosi & Albertini, 2019). Research findings are mixed also regarding children's gender.…”

“…In line with the idea that women's life course is closely tied to child-rearing and that they play a key role in bonding families together (Rossi & Rossi, 1990), we would expect that children's distressful life-course events have a greater impact on their mothers' than on their fathers' lives. Interestingly, while some studies have found no differences according to gender (Ko & Sung, 2022;Milkie et al, 2008;Tosi & Albertini, 2019), other studies found that mothers are more affected by their children's union dissolution than fathers (Kalmijn & de Graaf, 2012).…”

“…These studies yield notable insights, but they often remain descriptive because of their cross-sectional character. More recently, a smaller but growing literature has developed on longitudinal methods to disentangle the effects of children's union dissolution from other sources of confounding (Kalmijn & de Graaf, 2012;Ko & Sung, 2022;Milkie et al, 2008;Tosi & Albertini, 2019). To further substantiate these findings, this study looked at more fine-grained and in-depth information on both the marital and cohabiting history of all adult children, and their consequences on different dimensions of parental health.…”

“…Third, previous longitudinal studies have not focused on dimensions of health other than the mental one. In this domain, research has established strong evidence that children's union dissolution affects parents' depressive feelings (e.g., Kalmijn & de Graaf, 2012;Ko & Sung, 2022;Tosi & Albertini, 2019). Yet, disruptive family events could have an impact on both mental and physical health in later life (Thomeer & Ostergren Clark, 2021;Umberson & Thomeer, 2020).…”