The Association Between Divorce or Parental Separation and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/99588929354

Faren Bartholomew
Faren Bartholomew

Faren Bartholomew is a current senior at Wesleyan Univerisity double majoring in Government and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and minoring in Education Studies. Faren is from the Metro Detroit area and is headed to Washington D.C. for law school in the fall.

Abstract: Experiencing parental divorce in childhood or adolescence can have lasting mental health consequences on individuals (Sands, Thompson, Gaysina, 2017). In the United States, divorce is a fairly common practice, with a divorce rate between approximately 40% and 50%, depending on when the couple was married (American Psychological Association, 2021). Many children will undergo the process of parental separation, and there has been a substantial breadth of research into their psychological well-being. Current research has shown that there are several mental illnesses, including depression, that are associated with going through a parental divorce in childhood or adolescence (Sands, Thompson, Gaysina, 2017). However, diagnosable anxiety disorders as a potential association of experiencing divorce as a minor are under-researched. The goal of this analysis was to establish if there is an association between experiencing parental divorce in childhood and generalized anxiety disorder (one of the most common anxiety disorders in the US). A regression analysis found a statistically significant association between parental separation and generalized anxiety disorder.

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