Children whose parents separate and are not on speaking terms may be more vulnerable to catching colds as adults than children whose parents stay together or go through an amicable break-up, research suggests.

“There is evidence that children whose parents divorce are at increased risk for illness both during their childhood and as adults,” said lead study author Michael Murphy, a psychology researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

“However, our study indicates that parental separation itself may not account for this increased risk,” Murphy said. “This is important because parental divorce is a common experience.”

Growing evidence linking divorce-related stress to an increased risk of physical health problems

For the study, researchers quarantined 201 healthy adults, exposed them to rhinovirus 39 (RV39) and monitored them for five days to see how their immune systems reacted and if they developed a respiratory illness.

Participants in the study were about 30 years old on average, and 92 of them, or 46 per cent, reported that their parents had divorced or separated during their childhood. Among the people with separated parents, 51 said their parents were not on speaking terms.

Adults whose parents lived apart and never spoke during their childhood were more than three times as likely to develop a cold as participants who grew up in two-parent households, the study found. However, adults whose parents separated but communicated with each other were no more likely to catch a cold than people who came from intact families.

People whose parents separated and stopped speaking were 3.3 times more likely to develop a cold than people whose parents remained together during their childhood, the study found.

The findings add to growing evidence linking divorce-related stress to an increased risk of physical health problems, said Sharlene Wolchik, a psychology researcher at Arizona State University.