One Plus One Press Release October 8th 2009

	One Plus One Press Release The Divorce Disadvantage - the negative impacts of relationship breakdown on adult health, parenting, the parent-child relationship and child wellbeing Embargoed until 00.01 on Thursday 8th October 2009
Today One Plus One publishes a major review of the international research literature on the impact of relationship breakdown on the physical and psychological health of adults and children and the consequences for parenting, parent-child relationships and child wellbeing. The review is entitled *When Couples Part: Understanding the Consequences for Adults and Children* by Lester Coleman and Fiona Glenn.
Key findings include:
Couple relationship breakdown is strongly associated with adult and child disadvantage. In the years prior to and following a split physical and psychological health of adults worsen.

Couple relationships - if they are of sufficient quality offer protection to partners in terms of social support, companionship and intimacy – especially for men. Between the ages of 30 and 50 single men have death rates about three times those of married men (for single women the ratio is double).

Understanding the impact on adults gives us additional insight into the impact on parents. Distressed parents are distracted parents; preoccupied with their own troubles, they are less attuned to their children’s needs and may be inconsistent and ineffective.

Contemporary partnerships are more fragile so increasing numbers of very young children are experiencing the breakdown of their parents’ relationship. The more times their parents re-partner the more those children are affected. And the effects are accumulative.

There is unequivocal evidence highlighting the detrimental impact of adult relationship conflict and distress on children. The research also indicates that it is not necessarily whether parents are in conflict but how this conflict occurs and is managed. Good parenting – warm and authoritative - can protect children from the effects of relationship breakdown. But when the parent’s relationship is in trouble, their parenting is likely to be impaired.

There is a clear link between couple relationship satisfaction and supportive parenting. As a result there is a powerful argument that the way a family functions (the quality of relationships within the family) rather than the family type (married or otherwise) may be more important in shaping child outcomes.

Professor Sir Michael Rutter, said in his foreword to the report: “Many people hold strong views about marriage and divorce based on religious belief or ideology but One Plus One sought instead to approach the topic of the effects of couple relationship breakdown on the basis of a dispassionate, thoughtful, critical assessment of the evidence”
Penny Mansfield, Director of One Plus One: "When Couples Part shows that although separation and divorce is now commonplace in the UK the negative impacts are as marked as ever and may be getting worse as more adults and children are affected compared with previous generations."
Dr Lester Coleman, Head of Research at One Plus One and lead author of When Couples Part: Understanding the Consequences for Adults and Children: “This review demonstrates a clear case to strengthen couple relationships where appropriate and One Plus One’s online relationship support service thecoupleconnection.net is a good place to start.”

Notes to editors:
One Plus One is the UK’s leading relationships research organisation established over 35 years ago we put research into practice. We investigate what makes relationships work – or fall apart – and make the findings accessible to everyone interested in strengthening and supporting couple and family relationships www.oneplusone.org.uk One Plus One has published When Couples Part: Understanding the Consequences for Adults and Children by Lester Coleman (Head of Research) and Fiona Glenn (Research Officer). The executive summary is available to download from the One Plus One website: http://www.oneplusone.org.uk/publications/whencouplespartexecutivesummary.pdf. A full copy of the report can be purchased from One Plus One. Please contact info@oneplusone.org.uk or on 0207 553 9530 for more information. The report is set within the context of all three major party conferences. Both government and opposition have announced that they will be bringing out green papers on families and relationships by the end of the year. At the Conservative Party conference David Willetts, Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills with special responsiblity for family policy said: “For many people raising our children is the most worthwhile thing we do. Raising a family can give new purpose to a marriage, dignity to work and delight to a home. It rests on deep-seated and admirable human instincts. And it is truly democratic as well – you can mess up despite great privileges or you can do brilliantly despite great adversity. A stable loving home is just about the greatest single advantage a child can have.” Action for Children and the New Economics Foundation recently published Backing the Future: why investing in children is good for us all in which they say: “Investing in a dual investment package, including targeted interventions and universal childcare and paid parental leave, could help address as much as £1.5 trillion worth of the cost of these social problems. This would leave the UK in a similar position to European nations such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark which have the best social outcomes.” http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/uploads/media/36/7857.pdf thecoupleconnection.net is One Plus One's direct service helping couples who want to improve their relationship. This innovative self-help site provides a wide range of tried and tested resources and practical tools. In 2010 One Plus One will be launching a new web based service for separated and separating parents, The Parent Connection. For more information please contact One Plus One.