Teenage Daughter Increase Divorce Risk, Study Finds

We know that parenting teenagers can be tricky and the mood swings can put the more robust relationships to the test.

But what we didn’t know, until now, is that a teenage daughter is more likely to lead you to the divorce courts.

According to a Dutch study having a teenage daughter puts the bigger strain on your marriage, with the risk of divorce higher among couples who have adolescent girls.

However, while the study found that the difference in divorce risks is substantial for fathers who grew up without a sister, the risk disappears absent for fathers with sisters.

The researchers suggest that men who experienced more mixed gender relationships when growing up may be better prepared for similar relationships in their own households.

Previous studies in the US have found that parents with first-born girls are slightly more likely to divorce than those with first-born boys.

Researchers David Ribar and Jan Kabatek, at the University of Melbourne, examined registry data from the Netherlands.

Their working paper shows that there are no differences between the divorce risks facing the parents of boys and girls until the age of 12. Between 13 and 18, parents of first-born girls divorce more than parents of first-born boys.

The odds of divorce are five percent higher for parents of teenage daughters compared with teenage sons, with a peak at age 15 to almost 10 percent higher risk.