How your parents’ divorce affects your health over decades

It’s a good idea to schedule a therapy session with your therapist—another painful consequence of your parents’ divorce has emerged.

Nearly half of American marriages will end in divorce or separation. Research shows that children of divorce are more likely to experience depression, distrust and low self-esteem, which can lead to trouble in school and social isolation.

Now, a heartbreaking new study reports that children of divorce are 60 percent more likely to suffer a stroke at some point in their lives than those who didn’t experience the ordeal as a child.

“The association between parental divorce and stroke is comparable to known stroke risk factors such as male gender and diabetes,” said senior study author Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked or a blood vessel ruptures, causing blood to leak into the brain. Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, killing 162,600 people in 2023.

Fuller-Thomson’s team evaluated data on 13,200 adults aged 65 and older with no history of child abuse. Seven percent of this group said they had suffered a stroke, and nearly 14% said their parents divorced before reaching adulthood.

The study authors speculate that the higher stroke risk may be due to chronic stress disrupting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that controls the body’s stress response. HPA axis dysregulation is strongly associated with increased risk of stroke.

Another theory is that children of divorced parents are at increased risk for high blood pressure, sleep problems that persist into adulthood, and for children to fall into poverty. All of these can increase the likelihood of stroke.

The researchers said they controlled for known risk factors for stroke, such as diabetes, depression and a small social support network, but had no information on participants’ blood pressure, cholesterol, contraceptive use, age at which parents divorced or the type of stroke they experienced. Key data.

This is one of several limitations of the study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

Another reason is that the youngest participants were born in 1957, when the divorce revolution was taking place in the 1960s and 1970s, when most states widely adopted “no-fault divorce” laws.

“Due to changing social norms, it is unclear whether Gen That’s what the samples prove.”

The findings support a 2010 study by Fuller-Thomson that showed children of divorce are more than twice as likely to suffer a stroke in their lifetime.

Other health effects

Strokes aside, past research has found that children of divorced parents often experience negative health consequences as adults.

Depression in adults, weakened immune systems that make them more susceptible to colds as adults, and even premature death are some of the potential consequences.

The age at which divorce occurs, the intensity of conflict, and parental support are all factors that influence the severity of these long-term effects.