Does Childhood Cancer Affect Parental Divorce Rates? A Population-Based Study

Astri Syse · Jon Håvard Loge · Torkild Hovde Lyngstad

47 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Clinical Oncology

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Family Dynamics and Relationships Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life Family Support in Illness

Abstract

PURPOSE Cancer in children may profoundly affect parents' personal relationships in terms of psychological stress and an increased care burden. This could hypothetically elevate divorce rates. Few studies on divorce occurrence exist, so the effect of childhood cancers on parental divorce rates was explored. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data on the entire Norwegian married population, age 17 to 69 years, with children age 0 to 20 years in 1974 to 2001 (N = 977,928 couples) were retrieved from the Cancer Registry, the Central Population Register, the Directorate of Taxes, and population censuses. Divorce rates for 4,590 couples who were parenting a child with cancer were compared with those of otherwise similar couples by discrete-time hazard regression models. Results Cancer in a child was not associated with an increased risk of parental divorce overall. An increased divorce rate was observed with Wilms tumor (odds ratio [OR], 1.52) but not with any of the other common childhood cancers. The child's age at diagnosis, time elapsed from diagnosis, and death from cancer did not influence divorce rates significantly. Increased divorce rates were observed for couples in whom the mothers had an education greater than high school level (OR, 1.16); the risk was particularly high shortly after diagnosis, for CNS cancers and Wilms tumors, for couples with children 0 to 9 years of age at diagnosis, and after a child's death. CONCLUSION This large, registry-based study shows that cancer in children is not associated with an increased parental divorce rate, except with Wilms tumors. Couples in whom the wife is highly educated appear to face increased divorce rates after a child's cancer, and this may warrant additional study.

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1991A Treatise on the Family 1977An Economic Analysis of Marital Instability 1994Women's Rising Employment and the Future of the Family in Industrial Societies 2004Caregiving process and caregiver burden: Conceptual models to guide research and practice 1990Determinants of Divorce: A Review of Research in the Eighties 2008Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.2005Gender Differences in Social Support: A Question of Skill or Responsiveness?2003The Joint Effects of Marriage Partners' Socioeconomic Positions on the Risk of Divorce

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2015Resilience and Psychosocial Function Among Mainland Chinese Parents of Children With Cancer 2020The impact of childhood cancer on parental separation, divorce, and family planning in Denmark 2012Parental Separation and Pediatric Cancer: A Danish Cohort Study 2017Divorce and parity progression following the death of a child: A register-based study from Finland

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