A researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington has found that the effects of divorce on children’s mental health could last longer than expected and could increase their risk of serious health issues decades later.

The university said the findings by social work Associate Professor Philip Baiden recently were published in the journal PLoS One. The research showed that Americans aged 65 and older who experienced their parents divorcing as children were more likely to suffer a stroke compared to their peers—one in nine as compared to one in 15 for those whose parents did not divorce.

“Even when taking into account common risk factors of a stroke, such as smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, depression, income and education, older adults whose parents divorced when they were children were much more likely to have a stroke than their counterparts whose parents were not divorced,” Baiden—who conducted the research with colleagues from Tyndale University and the University of Toronto, both in Ontario, Canada—said in a statement. “From a biological perspective, experiencing parental divorce as a child could lead to sustained levels of stress hormones that could have a lasting influence on the brain.”

UTA said the study analyzed data from more than 13,000 older Americans from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey. Some 14% had experienced parental divorce during childhood. To isolate the effects of divorce, UTA said that persons who experienced physical or sexual abuse as children were excluded from the study.

Baiden said that the youngest people in the sample were born in 1957—more than a decade before the introduction of the first no-fault divorce laws in 1969.

“It’s likely this cohort experienced greater social stigma from their communities and peers compared to those who experienced parental divorce after it became more common,” he said.

‘Long-term impacts of childhood trauma’

UTA said that while the study has limitations, understanding the link between childhood divorce and stroke risk is important because of the serious and lasting effects of strokes.

Studies reveal that roughly half of all strokes are fatal and that among survivors, roughly two-thirds report impaired mobility, more than half suffer from cognitive decline, and many lose the ability to live independently. Strokes have significant financial implications for those who get them, with combined direct and indirect costs exceeding $56 billion annually in the U.S.

“As a longtime researcher of adverse childhood experiences and social determinants of health, I believe this study provides additional information on the long-term impacts of childhood trauma on the adult brain,” Baiden said.

Baiden said that in the future, he plans to look at how childhood poverty, stress, and sleep disorders intersect with the risk of stroke, and he also plans to explore the mechanisms through which divorce might contribute to stroke.

“Interestingly, males who experienced divorce as children were more likely to suffer a stroke than females,” Baiden said. “This is unusual, as women are statistically more likely to have a stroke than men. This is another element we want to study further in future research.”

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