Parental divorce, romantic attachment, and internalizing symptoms in adulthood

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the long-lasting impacts of childhood parental divorce on romantic attachment and internalizing symptoms, both anxiety and depression, for romantic dyads. Existing literature indicates that parental divorce experienced in childhood is associated with negative romantic outcomes, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms (Christensen & Brooks, 2001; Auersperg et al., 2019); while parental divorce is all-too-common (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021) and the consequences of it may have devastating long-lasting effects, to our knowledge there has not been a study which connects all of these variables through the lens of attachment theory using dyadic data. To build on this foundation of literature, we used the Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to determine actor and partner effects of parental divorce on romantic attachment and internalizing symptoms in adulthood. We analyzed existing data using structural equation modeling (SEM; Jöreskog, 1970) to better understand how to support the relational, emotional, and mental health of those who have experienced childhood parental divorce.