RESEARCH ARTICLE


Does Parental Divorce Increase Risk Behaviors among 15/16 and 18/19 year-old Adolescents? A Study from Oslo, Norway



Henok Zeratsion 1, *, Cecilie B Bjertness 1, Lars Lien 2, Ole R Haavet 3, Madeleine Dalsklev 4, Jon A Halvorsen 5, Espen Bjertness 1, 6, Bjørgulf Claussen 1
1 Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Box 1130 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway
2 National Center for Dual Diagnoses, Innlandet Hospital Trust HF 2312 Ottestad, Norway
3 Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway
4 Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Box 1130 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway
5 Department of Dermatology, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Faculty of Medicin, Norway
6 Tibet University Medical College, Lhasa, Tibet, China

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2014
Volume: 10
First Page: 59
Last Page: 66
Publisher ID: CPEMH-10-59
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901410010059

Article History:

Received Date: 26/2/2014
Revision Received Date: 28/5/2014
Acceptance Date: 2/6/2014
Electronic publication date: 13/6/2014
Collection year: 2014

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Creative Commons License
© Zeratsion et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Box 1130 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway; Tel: +47 4128 3758; Fax: +47 2285 0610; E-mails: h.t.zeratsion@medisin.uio.no or hzeratsion@yahoo.com


Abstract

Background: Several studies have reported an increase in risk behaviors among adolescents after experience of parental divorce. The aim of the study was to investigate whether parental divorce is associated with risk behavior among adolescents independent of mental health problems, first when early divorce was experienced, and second after experience of late parental divorce. Method: One prospective (n=1861) and one cross-sectional study (n=2422) were conducted using data from two Young-HUBRO surveys in Oslo, Norway. All 15/16 year-old 10th grade students who participated in the first survey in the school year 2000/01 were followed-up in 2004 when they were 18/19 year-olds. The follow-up rate was 68%. The prospective study investigated the influence of late parental divorce that occurred between the age of 15/16 and 18/19. In the cross-sectional study we focused on early parental divorce that occurred before the participants were 15/16 year-old. Results:In the prospective study we could not discern a significant association between experiencing late parental divorce and an increase in risk behaviors among 18/19 year-old adolescents. In the cross-sectional study parental divorce was significantly associated with cigarette smoking and using doping agents. Conclusion: Parental divorce that occurs when the children of divorced parents are 15/16 year-old or younger is associated with an increase in cigarette smoking and use of doping agents. However, no evidence of significant association is found between experience of late parental divorce and risk behaviors in late adolescence.

Keywords: Adolescents, internalized and externalized mental health problems, parental divorce, risk behaviors.