People are having children later in life nowadays. They’re delaying marriage too. Millennials need to gain more education and spend a longer time in the workforce building up their career, in order to afford a wedding and children. So how is this shift affecting the next generation and society as a whole?
Many studies have focused on the impact an older mother has on a child’s development. For a woman, having a child later in life increase the risk of miscarriage, a difficult pregnancy, and the child having a developmental disorder. One plus side though, older women might parent better.
Now, studies are turning towards older fathers. New research has shown that children born of a father over age 35 have a higher risk of autism, schizophrenia, or a birth defect. One study found that children born to dads over age 40 may even risk lower scholastic achievement.
Though slight, over an entire population, the impact could be significant. So much so, that one UK bioethicist has proposed a program to encourage 18 year-old’s to bank their sperm, and have the National Health Service (NHS) pay for it. The results of this study show that if such a plan were enacted, officials might want to wait to collect until the man was a little bit older.
Older fatherhood may increase the risk of lower scholastic achievement. Getty Images.
A new study finds that an older father is the single most important factor in a child’s development of prosocial skills. This was independent of the mother’s age. The results of this study were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and…
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