Using data from a national classroom survey of almost 150,000 Swedish 12- and 15-year-olds, researchers have found that family break-up is bad for children’s psychosomatic health, but that the particular domestic arrangements agreed by parents after a split may make some difference to their kids’ wellbeing.

girl on the stairs with head in handsShare on Pinterest
Psychosomatic problems measured included difficulties concentrating and sleeping, and headaches.

The study compared children in joint physical custody after parental separation or divorce – staying alternately with each parent for equal amounts of time – with those living mostly or only with one parent. All children were either in sixth or ninth grade.

It also compared findings for children remaining in nuclear families, concluding that a break-up, whatever the living arrangements, was worse for children’s health than being in a family able to stay intact.

The findings produced an association with fewer problems from the kids under joint custody than from those cared for by sole custody.

Answers against the following items in a questionnaire indicating psychosomatic health were slightly better when arrangements were shared.

Answers were split by eight separate questions, each given the choice of never, seldom, sometimes, often, and always, for the research instrument known as the PsychoSomatic Problems (PSP) scale:

  • Difficulties concentrating or sleeping
  • Headaches
  • Stomach aches
  • Feeling tense, sad or dizzy
  • Having little appetite.

The pattern of wellbeing seemed to be consistent against a spectrum: nudging along from worst with custody with one parent only, a bit better if mostly with one parent, slightly better still if equity under joint physical custody, and best with a nuclear family. For example, for boys and girls in the study combined:

  • Sleeping problems were the most frequent, and at 22% for those living only with one parent, 19% for living mostly with one parent, 14% for joint physical custody, and 13% for children in nuclear families
  • Headaches suffered often or always were also common, at 19% among those living with only one parent, 17% for living mostly with one parent, 14% for joint physical custody, and 12% for nuclear families.

The authors say joint physical custody has become more common for children in the western world over the past 20 years. They cite the level of equitable arrangement reaching around a third of children affected by divorce or separation in Sweden in 2010 – a leap from just 1-2% of children in joint physical custody during the 1980s.

Knowing that previous research has suggested that children whose parents split up are more prone to emotional and behavioral problems than those who live with two cohabiting parents, the researchers – publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, a publication from The BMJ – wanted to investigate whether children’s domestic living arrangements were linked to a heightened risk of psychosomatic problems.

Giving background to the study, the authors say the rise in numbers of children with joint physical custody (JPC) has “concerned child clinicians as well as researchers.” Experts have “worried about children’s potential feelings of alienation from living in two separate worlds, increased exposure to parental conflict and other stressors that JPC may impose on a child.”

The title of the paper asks: “Fifty moves a year: is there an association between joint physical custody and psychosomatic problems in children?” The potential daily stressors cited for shared arrangements are:

  • Long distances to school, friends and leisure activities
  • Lack of stability in parenting and home environment
  • A need to adjust to the demands of two different family lives.

But while there had been these concerns given by children in previous interview studies, the new results suggest that such arrangements may nonetheless be preferable to living with only one parent.

The researchers emphasize that psychosomatic symptoms are related to stress, and that living in two different homes could be stressful for children. But they suggest this might be outweighed by the positive effects of maintaining close contact with both parents.

The teens were also asked if they found it easy to talk to their parent(s) when needed, and if they had enough money to do the same things as their friends, factors that were also linked to the children’s psychosomatic health.

The quality of the relationships and the level of material wellbeing could not, however, explain the differences found in the observational study.

No definitive conclusions about cause and effect between different domestic set-ups and psychosomatic health could be drawn by this type of study, but its findings echo those of other work, the researchers say.