Even though a divorce may have occurred more than 30 years ago, the changes caused by it can have a long-lasting effect for the child into adulthood. “It’s not the divorce itself that affects the quality of the parent-child relationship, but it’s what happens afterward such as geographical separation,” said Dr. Davey. “Marital transitions affect families in a number of ways,” Davey said. “They can interrupt the relationship of support between a parent and child, and the evidence suggests that the continuity of support by parents and to parents matters.”

The study also found marital disruptions earlier in a child’s life can be less detrimental to the relationship than those that occurred in adulthood. This also means that children in the same family can be affected differently by the same event, Davey said. The results suggest that both the type of transition and when in a child’s life it occurs are important. A father’s remarriage early in a child’s life makes it more likely that his children will provide help in later life, but the same transition when the child is an adult reduces the chances of that child helping the father. There is also evidence that the more a child’s life was spent with a divorced mother, the higher the chances that the child will provide assistance when the mother is older.