Older mums� children behave better
Older mothers are sometimes called selfish and career-driven but they can take comfort in the latest finding that their children behave better.
Telethon Kids Institute shows children born to older women fare well when it comes to behaviour. Mothers in their early 20s are more likely to struggle with anxious or antisocial children.
The study published in the Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology journal shows the older the mother when she has a child, the lower the risk of behaviour problems in the child. The father's age does not seem to matter.
Researchers used WA's Raine study of more than 2000 families to track children from age two to 17 and get firsthand reports from parents about their children's development.
Study author Jessica Tearne said the trend in Western countries for women to have children later in life had prompted studies into the effect on parents' and children's health and wellbeing.
"While a lot of these studies have looked how older parental age relates to severe mental illnesses, not many have looked at how having older parents influences more general behaviour problems in children," Ms Tearne said.
"We found the older the mother at birth, the risk of her child exhibiting problem behaviours decreases significantly, after accounting for important variables such as socioeconomic status.
"It's telling us is that when it comes to behaviour, older mothers and their kids are doing OK."
Co-researcher and mother of 15-month-old Teddy, Monique Robinson said the results were reassuring for older parents but more work was needed.
"We can only speculate at this stage that influencing factors may include more life experience, more financial stability and social support, or even greater planning or readiness for pregnancy in older mums," Dr Robinson said.
"We're not saying young or older mums are best, but older mums often get a lot of negative publicity so in this study we were able to find some benefits."
