Impact of divorce on teens varies on ethnic lines

A couple is seen at sunset during a wedding ceremony in a file photo. Hispanic-American teenagers don't encounter as many problems as other adolescents after their parents divorce or separate because they already face so many disadvantages, according to a new study.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Hispanic-American teenagers don't encounter as many problems as other adolescents after their parents divorce or separate because they already face so many disadvantages, according to a new study.

Researchers who examined the impact of family problems on teens from various ethnic groups found it affected each of them differently.

African-American teens, whose parents had the highest divorce rate, experienced more financial difficulties. But European- and Asian-American adolescents suffered the most disruptive effects because they were originally the most well-off in terms of well-being and resources.

"For many Hispanic adolescents, their life situation is already poor before their family dissolves - there may not be much further for them to drop," said Yongmin Sun of Ohio State University.

"Hispanics have more disadvantages regardless of their family structure," he added in an interview.

Sun and his colleague Yuanzhang Li looked at the well-being of 700 Hispanic-American, European-American, African-American and Asian-American teens before and after a family disruption in terms of their academic success, psychological well-being and behavioral problems.

The findings, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, are based on survey data from the National Education Longitudinal Study on teens who experienced a family disruption between the 10th and 12th grades.

The researchers also considered the parents' occupations, their income and education level, as well as how well parents and the teens got along, how often they talked to each other and did things together.

"The study looked at how a parent's resources are responsible for these disruptive effects," said Sun.

"If they (teens) aren't doing so well in academic tests or their psychological well-being it's because their family resources were already low," he added.