WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Cancer in a child may affect the quality of the parents' relationship, but few studies have examined a potential effect on parental divorce, and no studies have accounted for the proportion of couples that live outside formal marriages. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:In this nationwide registry-based study with up to 20 years of follow-up, we included both married and cohabiting couples, reflecting modern family structures. We found that experiencing cancer in a child is not a risk factor for the parents separating.abstract OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the risk for separation (ending cohabitation) of the parents of a child with a diagnosis of cancer. METHODS:In a nationwide cohort, we compared the risk for ending cohabitation of the parents of 2450 children (aged 0-20 years) given a diagnosis of cancer with the risk of parents of 44 853 randomly selected, gender-and age-matched cancer-free children. We adjusted for socioeconomic position and demographic factors. Rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals for separation were estimated in a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS:The parents of children with cancer did not have a higher risk for separation than the general population (rate ratio: 1.00 [95% confidence interval: 0.91-1.10]). Separate analyses according to type of cancer and survival of the child similarly yielded null results.CONCLUSIONS: Experiencing cancer in a child does not seem to be a risk factor for separation. Our study will allow clinicians to reassure parents and to support them in facing the trauma of cancer in their child.

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