Today, many women opt to marry at a later time in order to focus more on career. This has led to women being older when having children. It has its benefits though, as older mothers can have smarter kids.
Today, more women are putting off marriage to focus on their career. Such women tend to be better educated. They also have their careers more established. These are just some of the advantages that kids can have from mothers who have married later.
Research has found that children from older mothers tend to do better on cognitive tests. It is likely they do so because they have better resources and more attention. Children born from younger mothers tend to have lesser resources available to them.
Data from three UK studies were used for the research. The data were taken from the 1958 National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study and the 2001 Millennium Cohort Study. The studies measured the cognitive abilities of children from 10-11 years old.
Studies from 1958 and 1970 showed that children born from mothers aged 25-29 had better cognitive scores than those from older mothers. However in the 2001 study that has changed. The gap between children born from younger mothers has lessened from those born from older ones.
The researchers took into account the mothers' social and economic backgrounds. When this was done, the gap has almost disappeared, according to the London School of Economics Political Science's site. The researchers think that this might be the result of mothers having better social and economic status now than in the past.
Dr. Alice Goisis is the lead author of the study and a researcher at LSE. She has said that the study is the first to look at the changing social and economic status of older women and how they relate to children's development, as Science Daily reports. With more women today being successful in their careers, they pass on to their children what they have, giving children a better chance in life.
Women today are choosing to marry older in order to focus on their career. A study finds that older women can have smarter kids. A study finds that men get depressed when their partners are pregnant.
