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Is divorce tougher on boys than on girls?

A new study reports that men whose parents divorced before they were 18 are two to three times as likely to seriously consider taking their own lives as men whose parents were not divorced by that age.

Women whose parents divorced by age 18 were not affected as significantly. They, too, thought about suicide more often than other women, but the thoughts were explained by other traumatic experiences they’d had, like childhood abuse.

Divorce might be expected to have a bigger overall impact on daughters than on sons, since in general women tend to be more susceptible than men to depression and suicidal thoughts. But the findings were not a surprise to the study’s lead author, Dr. Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto.

She noted that in most cases of divorce, at least until recently, mothers obtained custody of the children, and the lack of regular contact with a father may take a particular emotional and developmental toll on sons. “The loss of a male role model for the boys may seriously impact their well-being,” she said. “Other research has indicated a positive father figure is very important for young men and boys, to develop their gender identity and learn ways to regulate their emotions and enhance their mental health.”

Dr. Fuller-Thomson emphasized that serious thoughts of suicide affect only a minority, and that a vast majority of children of divorce do fine. “I don’t want every divorced mom or dad to be in a panic about this,” she said. “Considering suicide is a rare event.”

Boys may also be more likely to clam up and internalize their grief, whereas girls are more likely to “talk it out,” she said.

Men, in general, are reluctant to reach out for help, said Dana Alonzo, an assistant professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, who has done similar studies. They are also more prone to drug abuse, which is linked with suicidal feelings.

“They’re socialized to be strong, not to show weakness, not to show their feelings,” she said. “If they’re living in a home just being raised by a mom, who encourages more expression of emotions and closeness, that sort of contradicts the message they’re getting from society as a whole, that ‘you should be able to handle this on your own.’ ”

Earlier studies that looked at the impact of divorce on suicidal tendencies have yielded somewhat conflicting results. One 2006 study found that men of divorced parents were 10 times as likely to attempt suicide compared with men whose parents were not divorced, and that women were not at elevated risk at all. Other studies have found an increased risk only for women.

But Dr. Fuller-Thomson, who studies how early childhood factors influence health, said it’s important to isolate the effects of divorce from the effects of other problems that children may experience at the same time. Such stressors include abuse, a parent’s unemployment or drug use, poor physical or mental health, and difficulties in school that can lead to lower earning potential in adulthood. Children of divorce also tend to have lower rates of marriage and higher divorce rates as adults than others, which could also play a role.

Her study, published in the journal Psychiatric Research, tried to control for many of these factors. Data was taken from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey conducted by Statistics Canada and included a representative sample of 6,647 Canadian adults from the province of Saskatchewan.

The findings were limited by the nature of the survey, which asked only a single yes-or-no question about whether the participants had seriously considered suicide; there was no way to know when the suicidal thoughts occurred, or how serious they were. In addition, divorce rates, typical of Canada, were low; only 695 of the sample of 6,744 adults, or just over 10 percent, had divorced parents.

Some 17.5 percent of women whose parents divorced before they were 18 said they had thought about suicide, about twice the 8.7 percent of women whose parents were not divorced. When the researchers made adjustments for childhood stressors like abuse, there was no statistical difference between the rate of suicidal thoughts among women with divorced parents and those without.

By contrast, only 5.5 percent of men whose parents had not divorced by age 18 had considered suicide, and more than three times as many, or 17.5 percent, of men who came from divorced parents said they had considered suicide. Even when other stressors were factored in, men whose parents had divorced were 2.3 times as likely to say they had seriously considered suicide.

“There’s a subportion of the population that is very vulnerable, and it’s worrisome,” Dr. Fuller-Thomson said.