Feuding parents do more harm than a split

FEUDING parents who stay together for the sake of their children could be doing greater damage than they would by splitting up.

A study found youngsters are more harmed by arguments than separation. Gloria Moroni, the author of the York University report, said conventional wisdom suggests that divorce is bad for children, but her research indicates that the situation before parents separate has a significant impact. “Inter- parental conflict may be even more harmful to a child’s development than parental dissolution itself,” she said.

The study suggests that youngsters with divorced parents are more likely to have behaviour or emotional issues. This is largely down to “inter-parental conflicts”, Ms Moroni’s study suggests.

The study found that, compared to children of parents that are together, children of divorce have 30 per cent worse non-cognitive skills – involving behaviour, emotional issues and peer problems – and perform about 20 per cent lower for cognitive skills – such as reading and maths.

Ms Moroni said the differences were “not necessarily due to divorce itself ”.

She said: “Most of the damage is given by pre-divorce circumstances and characteristics of the family.”

The findings will be presented at the Royal Economics Society’s annual conference this week.