Parental divorce: psychosocial well-being, mental health and mortality during youth and young adulthood - A longitudinal study of Swedish conscripts

Background: We investigated the association between parental divorce, adole scent well-being and later mental health and mortality in young men. Method s: A national cohort of 47,033 conscripts was followed up using registers f or a period of 18 years. Baseline data were obtained from questionnaires at conscription, including data on social background, well-being, health and the use of alcohol and drugs. These data were matched with the national reg ister of psychiatric care and with the national cause of death register. Re sults: Parental divorce was more common where less favourable social, behav ioural and psychological characteristics were reported. For example, in fam ilies where the father frequently consumed alcohol, the odds ratio for pare ntal divorce was 5.6 [95% confidence interval (CI): 5.0-6.2], compared with those families where the father never or rarely consumed any alcohol. In t he long-term follow-up the relative risk (RR) of hospitalisation for psychi atric disorders was 1.8 (95% Cl: 1.6-2.1) for young men who had divorced pa rents. The RR was 2.3 (95% Cl: 2.0-2.8) for a diagnosis of alcoholism, 1.3 (95% Cl: 0.9-1.8) for a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 1.3 (95% Cl: 1.1-1.6 ) for mortality. Conclusions: Several indicators of low levels of well-bein g at conscription and mental illness, including alcoholism, later in life w ere found amongst young men with divorced parents. Although the results wer e adjusted for antecedents and covariate factors in multivariate analyses, some degree of confounding of long-term health effects from factors contrib uting to divorce cannot be ruled out.