Effects of Parental Divorcement on Impulsivity in Adolescence

Abstract

Objective: The impact of parental coexistence on overcoming the adolescence period is being discussed. The aim of this study is to examine if there is a statistically signi-ficant difference in the level of impulse control among the adolescent children of married and divorced couples and to investigate the effect of the socio-demographic characteristics of the divorce process on impulsivity of adolescents. Method: Fifty girls and 50 boys ages of 12-17 with divorced parents, 50 boys and 50 girls with undivorced parents were included in the study. This is a cross-sectional study. The impulse control levels of adolescents were compared with the Barrat Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). The effect of the educational status of the parents, the gender and the age of the adolescent, the parent with whom the adolescent live, time after divorce process on the level of impulse control were examined. The value of p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between groups in total BIS scores and all subscale scores (p=0,743). In the divorced families, statistically significant difference was found between the time after the divorce and the BIS scores (P=0,002), while there was no statistically significant difference between the education levels of the parents, the parent with whom the adolescent live and the gender of adolescent. Discussion: According to this study, divorce did not effect the impulse control levels of adolescents between 12-17 years. Adolescents aged 6 years or younger in the divorce process were thought to have more impulse control problems than olders. It was thought that evaluation of divorcement and different factors would give better results in studies about impulsivity in adolescence.