Children From Divorced Families Likely To Become Smokers

Children of divorced parents are more likely to start smoking earlier than children belonging to families that are not broken, says a new study.

Researchers from the University of Toronto conducted a study and found that children belonging to divorced parents were more likely to start smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families. The study concluded that men whose parents divorced before they had turned 18 were at a 48 percent higher risk of smoking 100 or more cigarettes than men who didn't come from a broken family.

"Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing," said lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "We had anticipated that the association between parental divorce and smoking would have been explained by one or more of three plausible factors, such as lower levels of education or adult income among the children of divorce; adult mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety among the children of divorce, or other co-occurring early childhood traumas, such as parental addictions or childhood physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Each of these characteristics has been shown in other studies to be linked with smoking initiation. However, even when we took all these factors into account, a strong and significant association between parental divorce and smoking remained."

The study was titled "The Gender-Specific Association Between Childhood Adversities and Smoking in Adulthood: Findings from a Population Based Study." During the study, researchers examined 7,850 men and 11,506 women aged 18 and above. 1,551 sons and 2,382 daughters came from families where their parents had divorced before they turned 18. These men and women accounted for the major portion of the total number of men and women who reportedly had smoked more than 100 cigarettes.

While researchers were not able to determine accurately as to why parental divorce affects smoking habits, co-author Joanne Filippelli, a University of Toronto doctoral student says it could be used as a coping mechanism by children who are upset about their parents' divorce. Scientists have even suggested in the past that the calming effect of smoking attracts people who have faced earlier adversities.

In this study, though researchers were able to link parental divorce to smoking, they weren't able to conclude why and when these children start smoking. Hence, they concluded saying more studies need to be conducted on this matter.

Findings of the study were published online this month in the journal Public Health.