Older dads have ?geekier? sons, study suggests
by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting
Boys with older dads may have an advantage over peers with younger fathers when it comes to academic performance at school, a new study suggests.
Researchers studied more than 12,000 sets of twins in the U.K. and found that boys with older dads tended to be more intelligent, better able to focus on their interests, and less sensitive to peer pressure than boys with younger dads. The older the father was at the time the boy was conceived, the more ?geek? traits their son was likely to have, the researchers found.
Daughters, unfortunately, did not appear to reap the same ?older dad? benefits.
Twins in the study took online tests at age 12 to measure various cognitive and behavioral traits including non-verbal IQ, focus and susceptibility to peer pressure. Data from the tests was combined with information about the children provided by parents. Researchers then scored participants according to a ?geek index.? They also examined their standardized test scores at age 16.
Boys with higher ?geek? scores performed better in school exams, particularly in science, math, technology and engineering subjects, according to the research published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
It?s not clear why boys with older dads seemed to do better in school. The researchers said it could be in part because older fathers are more likely than younger dads to have well-established careers and the financial means to access good schooling and enri...
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