Children of divorce in an outpatient psychiatric population.

In a review of the records of some 400 children referred for outpatient psychiatric evaluation, children of divorce appeared at nearly twice the rate of their occurrence in the general population. Age and sex of the child patient were found to relate substantially to parental status, and to be significantly associated with type of presenting symptom. It is suggested that earlier research into the relationship between symptomology and history of divorce may have been marred by failure to take into account age and sex factors.