Parental cancer has lifetime impact on children’s education and earnings, study suggests

Researchers say children may need more support where illness occurs in early years or is particularly severe

Serious illness in a family may leave children depressed and distracted at school and reduce parental support (PA)

Having a parent diagnosed with cancer can have a noticeable impact on a child's performance in school and may affect their future career earnings, a new study suggests.

The effect was most pronounced in children under the age of five at the time of their parents’ diagnosis, the researchers from the University of Copenhagen found.

Children whose parents’ five year prognosis was worse, or who died from the disease, also had more pronounced and long-lasting negative effects.

The finding suggests schools should offer more support to children whose parents fall seriously ill while they’re studying in order to minimise the impact on their life chances.

“Educational and socioeconomic attainments in early adulthood were affected negatively in individuals who had experienced parental cancer as children or adolescents,” the authors write in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“These findings may indicate that some children who experience parental cancer would benefit from appropriate support and early educational rehabilitation in teenage years.”

The study suggests there are a range of direct effects from having a parent fall ill, as this can affect the care and attention they receive at home and support with school work.

It is also likely to affect motivation and focus in school, as well as increasing the likelihood of absences and the chances of depression, which can further undermine learning.

There may also be long-term, indirect effects from having a serious illness in a household with young children, including the impact on finances and parental relationships and careers.

For the study the group examined family health records from 1,155,214 children born in Denmark between 1978 and 1999 to identify whether a parent had been diagnosed with cancer before age 15 or 18.

This was combined with information on exam results and teacher-rated performance up to age 15, and disposable personal income at age 30 from public registers.

Of all of the children studied, 4-5 per cent had experienced parental cancer, and approximately half of these cases were for a cancer with a "good" five-year prognosis, the authors said.

Across all cancer cases, children had a slightly lower grade point average compared with children whose parents did not have cancer, and they were also more likely to be in the lowest income quartile at the age of 30.

Both effects were significantly more pronounced in children with parents with a worse five year prognosis.

The long-term socioeconomic impacts of growing up with a parent with severe cancer or who died from the disease is a growing research area and “may represent a major public health challenge”, the authors note.

They added: “Research suggests that children affected by parental cancer may experience problems in many domains, including emotional, social, cognitive, behavioural and physical functioning.

“Besides reducing children’s quality of life, such problems may induce social impairment and impact school achievement and learning.”