Alan Booth’s research while affiliated with University of Nebraska–Lincoln and other places

Based on a national sample of adults, individuals who experienced parental divorce as children were compared with those who did not experience marital dissolution. Respondents from disrupted families of origin scored lower than those from happily intact families of origin on measures of psychological, social, and marital well-being ― but not on measures of socioeconomic adequacy. These differences, however, were generally weak in magnitude. Individuals from intact family backgrounds who described their parents as unhappily married exhibited lower levels of well-being than did individuals who described their parents as happily married. Divorces that entailed a decline in parent child-relations, and multiple divorces on the part of parents, appeared to be particularly problematic. Individuals experiencing “low-stress” parental divorces did not differ appreciably from those who grew up in happily intact homes.