Parents who split before children are six put them at greatest risk of unhappiness, study finds

Parents who split before their children are six years old put youngsters at greater risk of being bullied, feeling lonely and being unhappy at school, a study suggests.

Danish researchers who analysed answers given by 219,000 children in the National Well-being Questionnaire, found that those whose parents separated when they were aged two to five had a greater changes of low social wellbeing than those aged six to 10.

Overall, one in 20 children (five per cent) were lonely, bullied, or struggled with school, but that rose by 41 per cent for those who came from dissolved families - the equivalent of an extra two children per 100.

And for those whose parents separated before the age of six the chance of unhappiness increased by 55 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for the six to 10s, and 30 per cent for the over 11s.

Dr Lena Hohwu, of Aauhus University, said: “We expected that children would have a higher level of social wellbeing at school if parental separation occurs when they are older rather than younger because a considerable part of the socialization process has already taken place. Our findings seem to confirm that expectation.

“By contrast, children who are younger at the time of family dissolution may be expected to have lower social wellbeing at school as they may have experienced more changes in family structure, for example having stepparents”.

The study also found that those aged nine to 12 were more likely to have low social wellbeing at school than those aged 13 to 16, regardless of their age at the time of separation.

Youngsters who had step-parents also seemed to fare worse, with the changes of low social wellbeing increasing by 61 per cent for the youngest group.

Dr Hohwu added: “Our findings suggest that the school may be an important setting where children at risk of poor well-being, as a result of parental separation, can be identified and receive help and support”.

Previous research has found that children can be affected by parental separation at least two to four years before the separation is finalised, possibly due to parental conflict.

The research was published in the journal BMC Pediatrics.