Children of divorced parents more likely to start smoking

Both daughters and sons from divorced families are significantly more likely to initiate smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families, shows a new analysis of 19,000 Americans. "Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing," said lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. The U of'T study, published online this month in the journal Public Health , shows that men who experienced parental divorce before they turned 18 had 48 per cent higher odds of ever smoking 100 or more cigarettes than men whose parents did not divorce. Women from divorced families were also at risk, with 39 per cent higher odds of smoking in comparison to women from intact families. "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," said Fuller-Thomson. "Each of these characteristics has been shown in other studies to be linked with smoking initiation.