How Parents' Separation Impacts Adult Kids

A team led by Carnegie Mellon University psychologists wanted to better understand if specific aspects of the family environment following a separation better predicted children's long-term health outcomes.

Parents' separation impacts adult kids. Image credit: tasnimnews.com (CC BY 4.0)

They found that adults whose parents separated but did not speak to each other during individuals' childhoods were three times as likely to develop a cold when intentionally exposed to a common cold virus than adults whose parents had remained together or separated but continued to communicate.

For the study, 201 healthy adults were quarantined, experimentally exposed to a virus that causes a common cold and monitored for five days for the development of a respiratory illness.

The results showed that adults whose parents lived apart and never spoke during their childhood were more than three times as likely to develop a cold compared to those from intact families. The increased risk was due, in part, to heightened inflammation in response to a viral infection.

The team also found that individuals whose parents were separated but communicated with each other showed no increase in risk compared to the intact families. (Tasnim News Agency)

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