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Divorce increases children's risk of stroke in the future
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Researchers from the University of Toronto warn that parental divorce has a detrimental effect on the health of children, particularly boys.
The risk of stroke in men whose parents were unable to maintain family relationships increases threefold compared to those who grew up in a complete family.
As a result of many years of observation, scientists have come to the conclusion that minor boys who have witnessed discord in the family have an increased risk of cerebral hemorrhage. In the case of women who have experienced their parents' divorce, such a tendency is not observed; their risk of stroke is no higher than that of those who were raised in a full-fledged family.
“We were surprised by the association between increased risk of stroke and family relationships, because we completely excluded cases where children were exposed to violence by their parents. We expected that the main factors influencing men’s health would be low socioeconomic status or health-threatening behavior. However, all risk factors influencing health were excluded, including age, income, ethnicity, education, obesity, physical activity level, etc. Families where parents abused alcohol or took drugs were not included in the study. Even after the “cleansing” carried out, parental divorce still remained the main cause of risk of stroke in men,” comments the lead author of the study, Esme Fuller-Thomson.
Scientists cannot give an exact explanation for this connection, but they believe that it may be related to the regulation of the hormone cortisol in the body, which is associated with stress.
"It's possible that the stress of parental divorce may have biological consequences that may affect how adult men deal with adversity later in life," says Fuller-Thomson.
According to experts, it is impossible to draw any definite conclusions here. This problem needs to be studied in more detail before it is possible to name the exact reason for such a relationship. Nevertheless, preliminary results suggest that it makes sense for treating doctors to learn more about their patients, because information about the parents' relationship can help to establish the causes of the disease and prescribe the right treatment.
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