Depression and disability lift likelihood of family breakdown

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Parents with depression and those with young disabled children are among the most at risk of family breakdown, according to a Department for Work and Pensions study.

The report, carried out by academics at the University of Birmingham into disability and family breakdown, found that on the whole families with a child or an adult with a disability were only slightly more likely to separate than those without.

However, within that group the risk dramatically increases among those with a disabled baby or toddler and those where a parent has an intermittent illness or condition, such as depression.

"Families with a disabled child will share many of the same pressures and pleasures of family life as their peers. Any increased risk of separation is most likely during the early stages of parenting a disabled child," the report says.