Divorce may lead to weight gain in kids, study says

A new study has shown that kids from divorced homes are at risks of weight gain than children whose parents stay married.

According to scientists at the London School of Economics and Political Science, factors leading to the change in their body mass index (BMI) are linked to both economic and non-economic reasons.

The researchers understudied data of 7,574 kids who suffered from a family break up before they were age six. The kids were born between the year 2000 and 2002.

The data collection process, as conducted by the UK Millennium Cohort Study, was grouped into five stages. The first set of data was collected when the kids were nine months. They were later surveyed at the age of three, five, seven and 11.

Findings of the study revealed that a total of 1,573  out of 7,574 kids experienced parental separation before the ages of 11.

Further analyses showed that kids from broken homes gained more weight within the first two years when their parents separated than kids whose parents were together.

Published in the Dermatology journal, the study concluded that divorce has a long-lasting consequence on kids physical health.

“Treating parental separation as a process, we analyze variations in children’s physical health before and after the date of their parents’ separation in order to capture potential anticipation, adaptation, delayed, or cumulative effects,” Alice Goisis, lead researcher for the study said.

“…Our results show that in the longer term, the BMI of children whose parents separate significantly deviates from the BMI of children from intact families.”