We already know: the history of our parents has an influence on our life as a couple. In wanting to deepen the subject, researchers from the University of the Commonwealth of Virginia (United States) and the University of Lund (Sweden) made a surprising discovery: divorce would be linked to genetic factors. “Previous literature points out that divorce is transmitted from generation to generation psychologically. Our results contradict this and suggest that genetic factors are more important”, explains Kenneth S. Kendler, co-author of this study forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.
No fatality
The researchers analyzed data from a large national adoption study of 20,000 Swedes. They found that when it comes to divorce, people adopted reproduced the same pattern as their biological parents, and not their adoptive parents, with whom they nevertheless grew up. According to Jessica Salvatore, the main author of this work, this aspect of heredity is due to character traits that are also genetic, such asimpulsiveness. “We know from other studies that these factors contribute to divorce,” she says.
No fatality, however: this discovery obviously does not mean that all children of divorced parents are doomed to divorce. “It’s absolutely not a perfect predictor. It’s just an increased risk,” says Jessica Salvatore. The researcher hopes that this discovery will allow therapists to provide more appropriate help to couples in trouble.
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