Health problems found in children who lose touch with father after divorce
Researchers say more health complaints are seen when children lose contact with their father than with their mother. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
Teenagers who have difficulties communicating with their fathers experience adolescent health problems, says researchers.
"This demonstrates that contact with both parents after a divorce is important,” said Prof Eivind Meland at the Department of Global Public Health and Care, University of Bergen.
Prof Meland added that they wanted to “explore what happens to the communication between parents and children after a divorce and how this impact the children’s future health”.
The study included 1,225 youth asked if they found it easy or difficult to talk with their parents. Additionally, they were asked about their health complaints and self-esteem.
Most of the youth studied for four years had parents who were divorced. The health complaints recorded by the study included various physical and psychological symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, stomachaches, anxiety, depression and sleeping problems.
“The divorce did not seem to affect how they communicate with their mother, but with father,” the researcher said. “We also see that closeness to both father and mother impacts the children’s health two years after the divorce.”
The researchers said more health complaints were seen when the children had lost contact with their father than with their mother.
“Those children that reported having lost contact or who find it difficult to talk with their father after divorce also had most health complaints,” said Prof Meland. “It seems like conversational difficulties between children and father were present before the divorce, but we also see that the divorce weakens the relationship.”
