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Parental Age in Relation to Offspring's Neurodevelopment

S A M Veldkamp1, M A J Zondervan-Zwijnenburg2, Elsje van Bergen1

  • 1Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology : the Official Journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53
|May 19, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Children born to older parents generally exhibit better neurodevelopmental outcomes, including fewer attention problems and higher IQ and educational achievement. Parental age, particularly maternal age, positively influences child development, though socioeconomic status plays a confounding role.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatrics
  • Behavioral Genetics

Background:

  • Advanced parental age is a known risk factor for severe neurodevelopmental disorders.
  • The impact of parental age on general neurodevelopmental outcomes requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the association between parental age and offspring's attention problems, intelligence, and educational achievement.
  • To determine if parental age influences general neurodevelopment beyond severe disorders.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of child-, father-, mother-, and teacher-rated attention problems, intelligence, and educational achievement data from four Dutch population-based cohorts.
  • Bayesian research synthesis to aggregate results across cohorts, with data split for hypothesis generation and evaluation.
  • Inclusion of socioeconomic status (SES) and child gender as covariates.

Main Results:

  • Negative linear relations between parental age and attention problems were observed, with younger parents' offspring showing more attention issues.
  • Maternal age showed a positive linear association with offspring's IQ and educational achievement.
  • Paternal age had an attenuating positive relation with educational achievement and an inverted U-shape relation with IQ.
  • Associations, particularly with maternal age, persisted after controlling for SES.
  • Socioeconomic status partially confounded the positive relationship between parental age and offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • Parental age, especially maternal age, is associated with improved offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes, including attention, IQ, and educational achievement.
  • The observed effects, while small, are statistically significant and indicate a benefit for children of older parents.
  • Socioeconomic status is an important factor that influences and partially confounds the relationship between parental age and child neurodevelopment.

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