Wash U study aims to find out how divorce affects young children

When Shannon Sides was finalizing her divorce in September 2021, she was concerned about how it would affect her two young children. She said her 6-year-old daughter is already having trouble with transitioning between the two homes.

“She asked me recently if people who have gotten divorced ever get back together,” Sides said. “I know that she still really misses when her dad and I were together. So that really makes me sad for her.”

Sides and her daughter are now participants in a new study at Washington University to examine how divorce and high parent conflict affects kids ages 4 to 7. It’s the first study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to look at the psychiatric toll of divorce on children. Susan Perlman, an associate professor of psychiatry, is leading the study.

“There aren't really any direct interventions for children experiencing this type of familial stressor,” Perlman said on Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air. “But if we find that there are specific ways of measuring biological stress, maybe we could come up with interventions to intervene earlier.”

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2022-03-09/wash-u-study-aims-to-find-out-how-divorce-affects-young-children