Effects of Parental Divorce on Adolescent Adjustment and Well-Being
This paper reviews a study by Størksen et al. (2006) examining the effects of parental divorce and parental distress on adolescent psychological adjustment and well-being in Scandinavian populations. Drawing on data from the HUNT II study in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, the paper outlines the study's epidemiological framework, independent and dependent variables, methodology, and key findings. Topics addressed include gender differences in adjustment outcomes, the relationship between age and symptom severity, academic and conduct problems, and the limitations of cross-sectional research design. The paper highlights the significance of extending divorce research to Scandinavian contexts, where prior data were scarce.
- Introduction: Study purpose, variables, and central hypothesis
- Literature Review and Theoretical Framework: Epidemiological framework and prior divorce research
- Methodology: HUNT II sample, data collection, and participant grouping
- Findings and Strengths: Key results, gender patterns, and study strengths
- Limitations and Significance: Methodological limits and contribution to Scandinavian research
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What makes this paper effective
- Clearly identifies independent and dependent variables upfront, providing the reader with a precise analytical framework before the literature and methodology are introduced.
- Balances strengths and limitations honestly, acknowledging recruitment bias and the inability to separate pre-divorce conflict from divorce effects — a sign of critical engagement with the source study.
- Grounds the rationale for the study in a real gap in the literature — the absence of Scandinavian-specific research — giving the paper a focused and defensible purpose.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates structured research critique: it does not merely summarize findings but evaluates the study's methodological choices, including the use of cross-sectional data, self-reporting instruments, and the public registry linkage of family members. This move — explaining why a method was chosen alongside its trade-offs — is a core skill in graduate-level research analysis.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a conventional research-review structure: introduction (purpose and variables), literature (theoretical framework and prior work), methodology (participants and data collection), findings (results, strengths), and a closing section on limitations and broader significance. Each section maps directly onto a standard empirical article critique, making the organizational logic easy to follow and replicate.
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of divorce or separation on an adolescent's psychological adjustment, investigate whether there are any gender differences in the effect of divorce, assess the impact of time on the adolescent after divorce, and examine the effect of divorce on the adolescent after controlling for parental symptoms of depression and anxiety (Størksen, Røysamb, Holmen, & Tambs, 2006).
The independent variables for this study were divorce and parental distress. These two variables were selected because the researchers wanted to establish the effect of divorce on adolescents and compare it to that of adolescents whose parents had not divorced or separated. Adolescents who had grown up with one parent were included in the no-divorce group, since they had only ever known a single parent. Parental distress was used to determine the impact it would have on an adolescent and to compare it to that of a parent who does not experience distress.
The dependent variables for this study were symptoms of anxiety and depression (SCL-5), subjective well-being (SWB), academic performance, conduct, and dissatisfaction. Academic performance, conduct, and dissatisfaction were treated as school-related problems. The researchers wanted to determine the effects of divorce on Scandinavian adolescents across these five variables and compare them to those of adolescents whose parents had not divorced. This would allow the researchers to determine whether parental divorce has any measurable effect on an adolescent's life outcomes.
In this study, the researchers hypothesized that divorce has a direct effect on adolescent distress and resultant school problems.
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
The study employed an epidemiological framework. This framework is used to evaluate the correlation between exposure to a given factor and its adverse health effects. In this study, the researchers wanted to evaluate the correlation between exposure to parental divorce and parental distress and the adverse effects on the health and well-being of adolescents. Additional adverse effects examined included school-related problems. Adolescents exposed to divorce were compared to adolescents who had not been exposed to divorce, with the two groups matched on age, sex, race, and social status.
According to Størksen et al. (2006), divorce is quite common and routinely involves children. Numerous studies have been conducted analyzing the effect of divorce on children and adolescents in the United States and Britain. These studies consistently show that children experience adjustment problems and that their well-being is affected, leading divorce and child adjustment to be recognized as a public health issue. There is evidence that boys externalize problems more than girls following a divorce; however, this finding has been questioned, with other researchers demonstrating that by age 15 there is little difference between boys and girls in externalizing behavior. A notable gap in the literature was the absence of studies focused on Scandinavian countries or populations, and it was this gap that motivated the current study.
Methodology
The study participants were all residents of Nord-Trøndelag, a county in Norway that contains approximately 3% of the Norwegian population (Størksen et al., 2006). Everyone aged 20 years and above received an invitation to participate in the HUNT II study. A total of 66,140 people were eligible to participate, of whom 46.7% were men (Størksen et al., 2006). Young participants were recruited through the local school system. All students aged 13 to 19 were invited to participate. A total of 8,984 adolescents took part in the study, with boys accounting for 50.3% (Størksen et al., 2006). The mean age was 16 years.
The researchers conducted a mixed-methods study. Adolescent participants were divided into two groups: a divorce group and a no-divorce group. Assignment to either group was based on the participant's response to a question about parental divorce. Any participant who did not answer this question was excluded from the analysis. There was no special treatment applied to either group, as the researchers aimed solely to evaluate the effect of divorce on adolescents compared to those whose parents had not divorced.
The researchers made use of data from HUNT II to estimate psychological distress among the parents of the targeted subjects (Størksen et al., 2006). Adolescent participants were required to complete a questionnaire during one school hour. Physical examinations and structured interviews were also conducted. Each adolescent was required to sign a written consent form for participation, and adolescents below the age of 16 were required to obtain signed consent from a parent.
References
Størksen, I., Røysamb, E., Holmen, T. L., & Tambs, K. (2006). Adolescent adjustment and well-being: Effects of parental divorce and distress. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 47(1), 75–84.
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