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Children who come from affluent families are more affected by divorce than those from poor families according to a study conducted by researchers at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago.

The study, which utilised data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, reviewed information concerning 4,000 children whom researchers divided into three groups in accordance with their families’ incomes, before considering how changes to their families' affected their behaviour.

Ultimately, researchers found that, following their parents having divorced, it was children from families with higher incomes and standards of living that were more likely to exhibit negative and/or harmful behaviour. Equally relevant, though, was the fact that it was these children that were more likely to benefit from being incorporated into stepfamilies when compared to children from lower-income families. In short, a divorce was more likely to have a significant effect, positive or negative, on wealthier children.

Rebecca Ryan, assistant professor of psychology at Georgetown University and the study’s lead author posited that this trend could potentially be attributed to the fact that children from more affluent families are more likely to experience a significant decline in their quality of life following their parents having divorced. She also noted that such children may need to move to a new home and/or school and that this can have a disruptive effect on them which, in turn, can alter behaviour.

With regards to children of lower-income families, Ryan observed that, as divorce is more common amongst this group, children may view parental separation as more normative and therefore find it less stressful.

Ryan added that she believes that programmes designed to prevent divorce are unlikely to prove to be as successful as those designed to improve the circumstances of low-income families arguing that: “programs designed to save marriage will not be as effective as programs that “enhance the quality of the socio-emotional or educational environments in the home.”