How Divorce Affects Your Health

When it comes to how long your life will be, you can blame your parents. But only a little bit. If your parents got divorced when you were a kid, you have an elevated risk of dying earlier than your peers -- in fact, you're 44% more likely to die earlier than your expected age compared with people who had parents that stuck together (for better or worse).

Not because of the stress of the divorce per se. But because the effects of smoking, drinking alcohol, and being overweight hit kids of divorced parents particularly hard. (Yes, as if smoking weren't bad enough already, there's something about having divorced parents that makes it worse.)

But it's not all bad news. You can lengthen your life span. Some things are obvious (for instance, one way to limit the damage of smoking is, of course, not to smoke!). But surprise: Being in a happy marriage doesn't restore your life span to where it should be (but we highly recommend it for other reasons). Instead, having a sense of personal satisfaction by midlife (being satisfied with your vocation and accomplishments) is the element that protects you from dying early -- especially if you're male. And we believe you get that kind of satisfaction by tapping into the deeper meaning and purpose in life through qualities such as being positive, authentic, and spiritual (in whatever way makes sense to you). So even if your parents got you off to a sketchy start, YOU can make your life longer and happier than the statisticians would otherwise predict.