MENTAL-HEALTH OUTCOMES FOLLOWING RECENT PARENTAL DIVORCE - THE CASE OF YOUNG-ADULT OFFSPRING

The role of parental divorce in young adult adjustment has been overlo oked in the divorce and developmental literature. This study addresses the association between recent parental divorce and mental health out comes in young adults aged 18 to 23. Divorce decrees and driver's lice nse registries in a single state were used to draw a sample of 485 Whi te young adults, half of whom had experienced parental divorce within 15 months of the interview and the other half whose parents were still married. Comparison of the two groups indicated that at the bivariate level, parental divorce was associated with poorer mental health outc omes, but only among females. Furthermore, multivariate models estimat ing depression levels among these youth indicated that the significant effect of parental divorce on females was eliminated once parents' pa st marital quality was considered. Finally, the analyses indicated tha t dissatisfaction with current friendships or intimate relationships w as predictive of greater depression in both sexes.