We already know: the history of our parents has an influence on our life as a couple. By wishing 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 is linked to genetic factors. “Previous literature emphasizes that divorce is passed down from generation to generation psychologically. Our results contradict this and suggest that genetic factors are more important,” says Kenneth S. Kendler, co-author of this study to appear 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, main author of this work, this aspect of heredity is due to traits that are also genetic such asimpulsiveness. “We know from other studies that these factors contribute to divorce,” she says.
This is not inevitable: this discovery obviously does not mean that all children of divorced parents are doomed to divorce. “It’s definitely 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 patients. couples in trouble.
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