Washington: According to a new study researchers have found that divorce and not genetic risk was the cause of break-ups that the children of divorced couples experience.

The study showed that the parents divorce itself played a key role in having a negative influence on the marriages of children with divorced parents.

The statistics show that children of divorced parents are twice as likely to have divorces themselves, when compared to people who can from unbroken families.

Brian D’Onofrio, assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, said that when a host of variables are taken into consideration, such as genetic risks and socio-economic factors, the real divorce still accounts for around 66 per cent of the increased risk of divorce faced by children of divorced parents.

"This simply means that the transmission is not due to psychological or substance abuse problems that are passed from parents to the offspring. It's something very unique about the separation of one’s parents. The societal implications are very important because divorce is such a painful experience for both adults and children. This further suggests that interventions specifically targeted at the consequences of divorce are important for our society," D’Onofrio said.

D’Onofrio's findings appear in the August issue of Journal of Marriage and Family.