There can be no mother or father who wishes to become a single parent family and many parents will try to avoid splitting up the family unit.

But according to new research those who stay together for the sake of their children alone may not be making the right decision.

Conducted by Kelly Music of Cornell University in New York State, the research if the first to look at how children deal with parental conflict in the home.

Those whose parents remained married but were aware of frequent arguments at home were more likely to experience behavioural and mental health issues than those from a secure but single-parent environment.

Not only did the children's school work suffer as a result, the impact was found to continue in their adult years with self-destructive behaviour more likely to start early and last into later life.

Kelly Musick, who is also the co-author of Are Both Parents Always Better Than One?, said: "Marriage is not a blanket prescription.

"Our results clearly illustrate that, while children tend to do better living with two biological married parents, the advantages of living with two continuously married parents are not shared equally by all children."

Almost 2,000 families were interviewed by the National Survey of Families and Households and the children tracked from the age of 4 through to 34. For those in unhappy families, substance abuse such as smoking and binge drinking was more common and 40% experienced the break-up of their first serious relationship or marriage in later life.

Musick added: "Children from high-conflict families.. have an increased likelihood of an order of magnitude ranging from 45% to 75%, of eight out of 10 of our outcomes: dropping out of school, poor grades, smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, early sex, non-marital fertility and union dissolution."

Christine Northam, a spokeswoman and counsellor for Relate, told The Guardian: "When couples come to me and say they're staying together for the sake of the children, I tell them that they're not doing their children any favours.

"Parents who stay together for the sake of their children are not going to be intimate or loving with each other, so any child growing up in that family will have problems with knowing what a good relationship is or how to resolve relationship problems in a positive way."