Children from Divorced Families more Likely to Smoke

Experiencing parental divorce at childhood increases the child's risk of trying cigarettes later.

A team of researchers from University of Toronto reached the conclusion after analyzing the cases of 19,000 Americans. The findings reported in the journal Public Health found that both boys (48 percent) and girls (39 percent), who witness their parent's divorce before age 18, are at greater risks of involving in heavy smoking - 100 cigarettes or more - later in life compared to their peers from intact families.

All the participants - 7,850 men and 11,506 women - were originally part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2010. Of the total participants, 1,551 men and 2,382 women reported their parents splitting before they turned 18. Researchers found a significant number of men (4,316) and women (5,072) from divorced families involving in heavy smoking.

The link between parental divorce and smoking remained strong, even after researchers examined the role of other factors like educational status, mental health issues (depression, anxiety) and parental addiction of the participants, or experiences of physical, sexual or emotional abuse at childhood.

"Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing," lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson said in a news release. "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."

Even though the researchers couldn't fully explain the factors that led to this occurrence, according to them, smoking may be used by the participants to cope with their parent's divorce.

According to co-author Joanne Filippelli, "children upset by their parents' divorce may use smoking as a coping mechanism to regulate emotions and stress. Some research suggests this calming effect may be particularly attractive to those who have suffered early adversities."

According to the American Lung Association, every day nearly 4,000 children below 18 years start their habit of smoking. Cigarettes contain about 4,000 toxic chemicals and have been linked to a wide range of diseases like lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and cancer. 

Apart from that, adolescents who start using tobacco early have been found more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors and indulge in alcohol and drug abuse.