The Divorce Myth

Confirming a finding from the Easter Seals survey, a new study finds that parents of autistic children do not have an unusually high divorce rate. From WebMD:

Parents of autistic children often hear that the divorce rate in families with autism is 80%, but a new study debunks that figure as a myth.

''There really weren't any significant differences in terms of family structure when you consider children with autism and those without," says study researcher Brian Freedman, PhD, clinical director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

''In fact what we found is that children with autism remained with both biological or adoptive parents 64% of the time, compared with children in families without autism, who remained [with both biological or adoptive parents] 65% of the time," Freedman tells WebMD.

''That debunks the myth of an 80% divorce rate," Freedman says. An 80% rate is roughly double the U.S. divorce rate for first marriages.

Freedman is due to present his findings Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia.