EFFECTS OF PARENTAL DIVORCE ON OFFSPRING ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION: A META-ANALYTIC REVIEW

Across countries and cultures, almost all people are involved in a marriage, or a committed, couple relationship. Although, in Europe the divorce rate is increasing, only in the last decade it increased 4%. The effects of parental separation on physical and mental health were informed systematically for literature; nevertheless, there is no a systematic review to known the consequences on offspring's romantic relationship. A meta-analytic review was designed with the aim of knowing the effects of parental divorce on the offspring's romantic relationship satisfaction. The search for primary studies was carried out on the databases PsycInfo, Web of Science and on Google Scholar and, for those unpublished, papers were requested directly to authors. This search gathered 9 primary studies to be included in the study. The results of a correlational meta-analytic review showed a negative, -.14, significant and generalizable effect of parental divorce impact on the offspring satisfaction on romantic relationship. The results confirm the hypothesis that marital instability mediates the quality of offspring romantic relationship future. In conclusion, the offspring of divorced/separated parents develop a tendency to replicate this behavior with their own partner, reducing the satisfaction and trust level on the relationship