Greater Risk of Stroke in Children of Divorce

For some children of divorce, growing up in a dysfunctional household is like setting a mental time bomb.

According to a study published in the journal PLOS One on January 22, the risk of stroke is 61% higher in seniors whose parents divorced when they were young.

Scientists have found this to be an additional risk factor for stroke that is comparable to diabetes and depression.

According to a news release from lead researcher Mary Kate Schilke, a psychology lecturer at Tyndale University in Ontario, Canada, “Those whose parents had divorced still had 61% higher odds of having a stroke” (after accounting for most of the known risk factors associated with stroke, such as smoking, physical inactivity, lower income and education, diabetes, depression, and low social support).

The study’s data came from the CDC’s annual survey of American health in 2022, which included responses from almost 13,200 adults aged 65 and up.

Researchers discovered that more than 7% of the older Americans polled had suffered a stroke, and about 14% were children of divorce.

Those who had experienced maltreatment as children were expressly not included in the research.

A news release from researcher Philip Baiden, an associate professor of social work at the University of Texas at Arlington, stated that the association between parental divorce and an increased risk of stroke persisted even after controlling for factors such as the presence of a protective adult in the home and the absence of physical or sexual abuse in childhood.

Other types of childhood trauma, such as emotional abuse, neglect, mental illness in the home, substance misuse, or exposure to domestic violence by a parent, did not increase the risk of stroke much, according to the researchers.

Researchers noted that the link between divorce and a later-in-life higher risk of stroke remains unclear. They postulated that variables on the social and biological levels might be interrelated.

Having your parents break up when you were young could cause you to have high levels of stress hormones for a long time, according to senior author Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto Institute of Life Course and Aging. This information was shared in a news release.

“This could have long-term effects on how a child’s brain develops and how they handle stress,” she continued.

Researchers highlighted that previous studies have shown that parental divorce might impact other risk factors for stroke, including hypertension and sleep disturbances.

The mechanisms that may contribute to this relationship must be clarified, according to Fuller-Thomson.