Age in itself is an advantage

НЙТ пишет:

National Vital Statistics Reports data released in January showed that in the United States, birthrates shifted in 2015: The birthrate for teenagers dropped to 22.3 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 that year, a record low for the nation. And for women 30 through 44, the birthrates were the highest they have been since the baby boom era of the 1960s.

...
The trend all over the developed world in recent years has been more women having more children later; mean age in the United States at birth of a first child increased from 24.9 to 26.3 from 2000 to 2014. And whether it’s a first child or a later child, more women giving birth are 35 and older, which is still classified as “advanced maternal age” (well, it beats “elderly”).

In a study published in February in the International Journal of Epidemiology, researchers looked at evidence from three different large longitudinal studies in Britain, from 1958, 1970 and 2000-2, each involving around 10,000 children. They were looking at the association between maternal age at children’s birth and children’s cognitive ability when tested at age 10-11.

In the two earlier studies, there was a negative association; maternal age 35-39 at birth was associated with poorer cognitive scores in the children, tested a decade later; the children who had been born to mothers 25-29 did better. On the other hand, for the most recent study, that association was reversed; the children born to the 35- to 39-year-olds did significantly better on the cognitive testing than the children born to the younger mothers.

What had changed over time? The researchers found that they could explain this reversal by correcting for the social and economic characteristics of the mothers [материцкий капитал приобретает другой смысл, вообще приобретает смысл]; different women, in different circumstances, were having their children later in life.

“Nowadays children of older mothers have, on average, better outcomes because of the characteristics of women who tend to have children at older ages,” 

Dr. Goisis said.

In a study published online in December, researchers looked at how parenting practices and children’s development varied with maternal age in a group of 4,741 families in Denmark. Older mothers were less likely to be harsh with their 7- and 11-year-old children, either in terms of scolding or of physical discipline, they found, and their children were less likely to have behavioral, social and emotional problems.

“Older mothers seem to thrive better,” said Tea Trillingsgaard, an associate professor of psychology at Aarhus University in Denmark, who was the lead author on the study. “The mothers have more psychological flexibility, more cognitive flexibility, more ability to tolerate complex emotional stimuli from the children.” 

“Emotional well-being tends to increase with age,” Dr. Trillingsgaard said. “Age in itself may be an advantage.”

когда сам читал былло 235 каментов