UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Parental divorce exerts immense pressure to lessen father-child closeness and the pressure is increased by the father's physical separation, a U.S. study found.
Using high school student data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent health, the researchers interviewed a nationally representative sub-sample and then re-interviewed the subject five years later.
Prior to divorce, 71 percent of youth reported being very close to their mothers, while 57 percent reported being very close to their fathers.
The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found teens' withdrawal from fathers was much more severe among those youths with divorced parents, at 56 percent, than among those with non-divorced parents, at 28 percent.
Co-author Dr. Alan Booth of Pennsylvania State University said fathers, who often are the less involved parent before divorce, would have to increase their investment in the relationship just to maintain pre-divorce levels of closeness, which the vast majority of fathers do not do.
"Historically, teens distance themselves from parents and increase involvement with peers," Booth said in a statement. "Coupled with divorce, this distancing may result in further declines in father-child closeness."
