Divorce affects child’s health for a lifetime

CHILDREN whose parents have a messy divorce are three times more likely to endure a lifetime of colds as adults, a scientific study suggests.

Trials on more than 200 adults who were exposed to the cold virus found that early stresses in life appear to affect the immune system, increasing the chance of inflammation.

Researchers said anxiety in childhood might influence their susceptibility to disease up to 40 years later.

For the study, 201 healthy adults were quarantined, experimentally exposed to a virus that causes a common cold and monitored for five days for the development of a respiratory illness.

Those whose parents separated and were not on speaking terms were found to be more than three times as likely to develop a cold compared with those whose parents stayed together or split up amicably. The increased risk was due, in part, to heightened inflammation in response to a viral infection, the study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania found.

“Early life stressful experiences do something to our physiology and inflammatory processes that increase risk for poorer health and chronic illness,” said Michael Murphy, a psychology postdoctoral research associate at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “This work is a step forward in our understanding of how family stress during childhood may influence a child’s susceptibility to disease 20-40 years later.”

Previous research has indicated that adults whose parents separated during childhood have an increased risk for poorer health. “Our results target the immune system as an important carrier of the long-term negative impact of early family conflict,” said Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E Doherty University professor of psychology.

“They also suggest that all divorces are not equal” he said, suggesting parents who kept in touch after splitting up could protect their children’s health. Children whose parents were not speaking were likely to be affected by acrimony and might be forced to take sides.

Around four in ten marriages in the UK end in divorce, official figures show.

However, the divorce rate is dropping among couples who have married since 2000, amid a rise in cohabitation.

A 2015 study found lack of sleep was the most important factor in determining whether someone catches a cold.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.