The effects of recent parental divorce on their children's consumption of alcohol

This study tests whether children whose parents were recently divorced (wit hin the past 4 years) were more likely to consume alcohol frequently and/or in large quantities, than their counterparts in single-parent divorced fam ilies whose parents had been divorced 4 years or more. Several researchers have argued that divorce has a greater impact on children during the first few years following a divorce (Hetherington, E. M. (1999). In Hetherington, E. M. (ed.), Coping with Divorce, Single Parenting,, and Remarriage. Erlba um, Mahweh, New Jersy, pp. 93-116; Hetherington, E. M., Stanley-Hagan, M., and Anderson, E. R. (1989). Am. Psychol. 44: 303-312). Other researchers ha ve argued that the effects of divorce are longer lasting than just a few ye ars (Wallerstein, J. S. and Lewis, J. (1998). Fom. Conciliation Courts Rev. 36: 368-383) (1998). If the former hypothesis is correct, one would expect that children whose parents had recently divorced would drink more frequen tly and in greater quantities than those children from single-parent homes whose parents had been divorced 4 years or more. Using the NELS 1988-1992 d ata set, the alcohol drinking habits of children, whose parents had divorce d during the 1988-1992 period, were compared with the drinking habits of ch ildren whose parents, had been divorced previous to that time. The results showed moderate support for both hypotheses. Children from recently divorce d homes showed no tendency to drink alcohol more frequently than their coun terparts whose parents had been divorced 4 years or more, either during the ir entire lifetime or the 30-day and 1-year period prior to the questioning . Nevertheless, children whose parents had recently been divorced were more likely to drink alcohol in greater quantities more frequently and were mor e likely to be tinder the influence of alcohol, while at school. Both group s of students exceeded the alcoholic intake of children from intact familie s on all measures. The significance of these results is discussed.