"For many Hispanic adolescents, their life situation is already poor before their family dissolves -- there may not be much further for them to drop," study co-author Yongmin Sun of Ohio State University said in a statement.

Study co-authors Sun and Yuanzhang Li of the Allied Technology Group found European and Asian-American teens faced the most serious problems as the result of parental divorce or separation, followed by African-Americans because they start out with the most advantages in terms of well-being and resources.

The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found Asian-American adolescents seemed most affected by talking less to their parents, while African-American teens were most hurt by the shortage of economic resources and European Americans were equally hurt by shortages in parental time and economic resources.