Adults whose parents separated and did not speak to each other during childhood are three times more likely to develop infections than those whose parents stayed together or divorced on good terms, according to the results of a study published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.
A team of psychologists sought to understand whether specific aspects of the family environment following a separation modified the health of children. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States have quarantined 201 healthy adults who were experimentally exposed to a virus that causes common cold. They were monitored for five days.
Childhood stress disrupts the immune system
The results showed that adults whose parents lived apart and never spoke to each other during childhood were more than three times more likely to develop a cold than those from united families. The increased risk was due, in part, to increased inflammation in response to viral infection.
The team also found that individuals whose parents were divorced but on good terms showed no increased risk of health problems.
“Our results explain that the immune system is an important vector for the long-term negative impact of early family conflict,” said Sheldon Cohen, professor of psychology.
“Stressful experiences early in life impact our physiology and inflammatory processes, which increase the risk of having health problems and developing chronic disease,” said Carnegie Mellon research associate Michael Murphy. University.
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