Parental decisions to divorce and have additional children among families with children with cerebral palsy: Evidence from Swedish longitudinal and administrative data.

ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the relationship of having a child with the early-onset disability cerebral palsy (CP) and the parental decision to divorce and to have additional children. We use longitudinal matched case-control data from multiple linked Swedish National Population Registers between 2001 and 2015 and perform Cox proportional hazards regressions with interval-censoring. Although we do not find a general excess parental divorce risk on CP relative to the comparison group without CP, we find that having a child with CP increases the risk of divorce for parents with low education. We also find that having a child with CP reduces the likelihood of having additional children, especially for mothers in the older age range (maternal age at delivery >33 years) and parents with low education.

SUBMITTER: Muller V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9543549 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature