Previous research has reportedly suggested that divorce is bad for children’s psychosomatic health, but a new study suggests that particular living arrangements after the parents’ split can make a difference to children’s wellbeing, according to the website Medical News Today.
The new study, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, reportedly showed that joint custody between parents results in fewer problems in kids compared to those that lived with one parent.
For the recent study, researchers analyzed data on 147,839 children in sixth and ninth grades, mostly 12- and 15-year-olds, according to the Washington Post. About 69 percent reportedly lived with both parents, 10 percent lived about an equal amount of time with each parents through joint custody and 21 percent lived mostly or entirely with just one parent.
The children who lived in the same home with both parents reportedly experienced the fewest psychosomatic health issues, such as headaches, stomachaches, sleep problems, trouble concentrating, loss of appetite and sadness, and physical symptoms that may have an emotional cause.
Sleeping troubles reportedly seemed to be the most frequent among children. 22 percent of those living only with one parent experienced sleeping problems compared to the 14 percent of children living under joint physical custody arrangements.
Experts had reportedly previously been concerned by “the rise in numbers of children with joint physical custody” due to “children’s potential feelings of alienation from living in two separate worlds, increased exposure to parental conflict and other stressors that joint physical custody may impose on a child.”
However, the new results reportedly show that these living arrangements are preferable to living with only one parent.
“The potential stress from living in two homes could be outweighed by the positive effects of close contact with both parents,” researchers noted.