Contrary to popular belief

One of the blasting points doctor's like to make when it is discovered a baby has Down syndrome in utero is the fact that it will create hardship in a marriage. It is a common assumption that a child with DS is going to put a strain on a marriage. Scientific study is now refuting that fact with a newly released report.

Parents of Down syndrome children divorce less: study

January 11, 2008


by Courtney Taylor
Vanderbilt Kennedy
Center researchers are reporting slightly lower divorce rates for families
raising a child with Down syndrome than in the comparison groups, following an
examination of the Tennessee Department of Health's birth, hospital discharge,
and divorce database records from 1990-2002.

The population-based study
published in the American Journal on Mental Retardation by VKC investigators
Richard Urbano, Ph.D., and Robert Hodapp, Ph.D., showed divorce rates were lower
(7.6 percent) for families of children with Down syndrome as compared to 10.8
percent in the population group with non-disabled children and 11.25 percent for
families of children with other congenital birth defects.

Lower divorce
rates in the Down syndrome group may be due in part to what the researchers call
the “Down syndrome advantage,” which refers to the personality and behavior of
most children with the syndrome and the fact that parents of children with Down
syndrome are often older, more educated, and married before having children.

“When divorce did occur in the Down syndrome group, however, a higher
proportion occurred within the first two years after the child's birth,” said
Urbano, who serves as VKC's director of Evaluation and coordinator of Research
Databases.

“Mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome were more
likely to divorce if they were younger, had not graduated from high school and
if they were less educated and lived in a rural area.”

Researchers
compared 647 families who have children with Down syndrome, 10,283 families with
children with other developmental disabilities, and 361,154 families with
children who did not have any disabilities.

Urbano said the findings
would be helpful in counseling parents of newborns with Down syndrome about the
risks for marital discord during the first few years after a child's birth, and
also in developing special programs for families in rural areas.