Parental Divorce, Social Support, and Adult Depression

Joongbaeck Kim, University of Texas at Austin

Childhood life event and condition have an influence on adult depression according to life course paradigm. Parental divorce is increasingly one of the events that children undergo. I examine the association between parental divorce and adult depression, and, consider whether social support moderates the association, using the first wave of Aging and Sense of Control Data (AOSC). Parental divorce during childhood appears to exert a negative effect on adult depression when I control socio-demographic variables. Social relationship and social involvement are negatively associated with adult depression, but they do not offset the impact of parental divorce on adult depression. With the adjustment to marital status and marital quality, the effect of parental divorce on adult depression vanishes to insignificance, indicating that adults who are married and show higher marital quality appear not to be depressed by parental divorce. Few social support buffers the relationship between parental divorce and adult depression.