New research shows that kids born to mothers who are a little older are bound to perform well in intelligence tests compared to kids born to younger mothers. Simply said, mothers who give birth later in life produce smarter children.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the London School of Economics studied data from long-term studies, where the cognitive ability of the children was tested at age 10 or 11. The differences in the data disappeared when the social and economic situations of the mothers were taken into account by the researchers.
They claim that those born in the year 2001 have more attention and resources from their parents, according to the Independent. The research, however, tends to be selective in the age bracket of the woman, since the older ones are probably giving birth to their fourth child already. They also found out that older mothers today are much better off in terms of education, jobs and health than their counterparts in the past years.
"Our research is the first to look at how the cognitive abilities of children born to older mothers have changed over time and what might be responsible for this shift," lead author Dr Alice Goisis said. "It's essential to better understand how these children are doing given that, since the 1980s, there has been a significant increase in the average age of women having their first child in industrialized countries" she added.
Studies also show that children who are born to mothers aged 40 and above may leave their mothers breathless and exhausted, but they are a lot brighter, as per the Daily Mail. These kids not only develop better vocabularies even at a young age, but they also have higher IQ test results.
This should be good news for older mothers who sometimes bear society's bias of how age can lessen the chances of having a child and going through an easy pregnancy, according to Medical Daily. It means it is never too late to start a family even for older women as this could even be to their advantage.
