KIDS OF DIVORCE LIKELY TO HAVE SMOKING, DRINKING PROBLEMS AS ADULTS
Children of divorced families are more likely to become smokers as adults than children whose parents stayed together, according to new research from the University of Utah published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
In addition, boys of divorced families are more likely to become problem drinkers as adults than boys from intact families, says Nicholas H. Wolfinger, an assistant professor in the U.'s Department of Family and Consumer Studies. Girls' drinking habits don't seem to be greatly affected by divorce.
"The children of divorce are clearly at high risk to become smokers and problem drinkers," says Wolfinger, a sociologist. "This finding very clearly tells us where prevention efforts should be directed."
Wolfinger used data from the 1977-1994 National Opinion Research Council General Social Survey to examine the impact of parental divorce on the alcohol and tobacco consumption of adult offspring. In all, data from 11,268 people nationwide were analyzed.
For both boys and girls, parental divorce increased the likelihood of smoking in adulthood by one-third, compared to children from intact families. If their mothers remarried, the divorce-linked effect on smoking was reduced slightly for girls, but not for boys.
Meanwhile, boys from divorced families were one-third more likely to have drinking problems as adults than girls, whose rate of problem drinking was about the same as children from intact families, Wolfinger found. Men whose mothers remarried had the same level of drinking problem as children from intact families, while women from step-families report higher rates of problem drinking than women from either intact families or mother-only families.
The reasons why children of divorced families become smokers and problem drinkers still are largely unclear, Wolfinger says. Socioeconomic status plays a role in offsprings' proclivity toward smoking, but not toward problematic drinking. Divorce sometimes reduces offsprings' socioeconomic status, which often means fewer opportunities for a child to get a higher education. Lower levels of education are associated with the tendency to smoke. Measures of the respondents' psychological and social adjustment also did not explain rates of smoking or problem drinking.
In a related finding, trends show that the relationship between parental divorce and the propensity to become a problem drinker has declined for men born since 1910, Wolfinger says. This may be because divorce has become somewhat normalized in contemporary America. "In other words, divorce does not, at least in this one respect, hurt children as much as it once did."
But drinking and smoking problems related to divorce still persist to some degree, he adds.
"My study shows that parental divorce has serious consequences for the physiological well-being of offspring," Wolfinger says. "Needless to say, this is cause for both concern and further research. Furthermore, on the basis of my findings, efforts at substance education and prevention should concentrate on the children of divorce."
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Contact: Nicholas Wolfinger, (801) 581-7491 or (801) 364-3283; [email protected]
Writer: Karen Wolf, (801) 581-4628
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