Children influence the parents life span, (a new study shows)

grahamg

grahamg

Old codger
Location
South of Manchester, UK
A prestigious institute has published some findings on the thread topic:
https://www.mpg.de/14064449/children-influence-parents-life-expectancy

Quote:
"Does having children make us live longer? The numbers say yes, but the reasons are not yet understood."

"There somehow seems to be a link between people’s life expectancy and the number of children they have: People with children generally live longer than those without. Parents with two children even have a small longevity bonus added to their lifespan. A new study based on data on biological and adoptive parents explores the potential reasons for this association.

Prima facie, the numbers are clear: Mothers and fathers generally live longer than the childless. (Break)

The association between parity and longevity is not new. And there are very diverse theories on the subject. But the Rostock study is special because Barclay and Kolk inter alia use data on adoptive parents. This way, they are able to pick apart physiological and social explanations.

For example, a common theory has it that biological mothers are less likely to develop breast or uterine cancer. And this is confirmed by data on health from Sweden. But Fig. 1 clearly shows, that biological fathers and adoptive parents generally have a lower mortality than childless people, too. And the curves in the graph show similar patterns for men and women. Biomedical explanations purely based on a mother’s physiological processes and the physiological costs of childbearing thus are at best a small piece of the jigsaw in explaining the relationship between parity and mortality."
 

My grandparents would agree that it made them live longer. I went to live with them when I was 9. They often told other people that my coming to live with them increased their life expectancy. My Gramps was there for me all the time. He had me go through the scouting program, playing football, basketball and little league baseball up through playing ball in high school and several other father/son events. My grandma used to tell me that I took after my dad, which was her son. She said I have his same eating habits, except I ate more cookies than my dad.
 

Alligatorob said:
This is interesting, I did not read everything but have a question. Do you know if they took into account the possibility that people who are unhealthy to begin with are less likely to have children, and die younger? Could bias the statistics.
Click to expand...
They did admit that they couldn't rule out the possibility this factor might be involved, though as far as I can remember they didn't think it could completely invalidated their findings, (I think the possible flaw in their arguments concerned less wealthy folks who didn't have children, and reduced wealth being linked to poorer health).
 
grahamg said:
More evidence on thread topic:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316341
Click to expand...
Some quotes from the above website link:

"The team suggests that previous studies may have uncovered a link between the sex of a child and increased parental lifespan because they focused on the social benefits associated with having a daughter.

“In general, women tend to have more social ties than men, and older childless individuals, particularly men, appear to have less social interactions than older parents and there is evidence that having a daughter is associated with increased chances of regular social contacts and with receiving help if needed,” the authors explain.

Overall, the researchers believe that their findings indicate that greater support from offspring in later life may explain why people with children live longer than childless individuals."

The team writes:

“Our finding that the association grew stronger when parents became older is further in agreement with research suggesting that childless people face support deficits only toward the end of life.
However, selective elements and alternative explanations, for example, that parents have more healthy behaviors than non-parents, are not ruled out.”
Click to expand...
 
grahamg said:
Yet more evidence:
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-show-having-kids-can-add-years-to-your-life
Click to expand...
Some quotes from this website:

"When combined with their finding that this effect was greater among unmarried men, it seems that having kids offers health-promoting support in old age.

Throwing education into the mix also hints at an interesting hypothesis.

"Another possible explanation to the greater mortality difference among men may be that childless men are generally lower educated than men with children, whereas the opposite is true for women."

The study does not provide a definitive reason for why parents seem to live a little longer than non-parents, but it does paint a picture of children offering healthcare support, advice, and stimulation as their folks go into their twilight years."
 
grahamg said:
Counter arguments (or arguments here against having children at all):
https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/whether-or-not-to-have-children/
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Finally this website appearing to argue against having children, (with some other quite challenging views or arguments):

WHETHER OR NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN​

"Modern societies are pretty much in agreement on this score: having children is one of the most meaningful and delightful moves anyone can make. Couples who do not – for whatever reason – have children tend to be automatically almost universally pitied and are assumed to have been denied the chance to have offspring by biology. That one might freely choose not to have children, and yet be reasonably content with one’s choice, remains one of the most disturbing and unfathomed of all contemporary positions."

The basic dynamics of whether or not to have children follow the very same pattern that we see across a range of other so-called great choices in emotional life: whether or not to get married, whether or not to stay faithful, whether to follow the path of reason or the calls of the heart…

We observe a very strong desire to try to identify the ‘right’ choice accompanied by a frighteningly utopian belief that, once this choice has been located, we will be able to flourish and find peace.

But the reality is very different, much more sombre and more interesting: the large dilemmas of emotional life generally have no ‘answer’ in the sense of a response that doesn’t – somewhere along the line – entail a great loss and an element of extraordinary sacrifice. Whatever we choose will, in this sense, be wrong, and leave us regretting some features of the choices we did not make. There is no such thing as a cost-free choice, a line of argument which continues (oddly) to create surprise in contemporary life.

Making a good choice simply involves focusing on what variety of suffering we are best suited to – rather than aiming with utopian zeal to try to avoid grief and regret altogether. Consider, for example, the varieties of suffering that are on offer on both sides of the faithful/unfaithful ledger: both options will at moments be very miserable, so – when weighing up how to lead our lives – we should work on knowing as much as possible about our specific taste in misery.
(Break)

"......., trade-offs exist over the question of children. No honest experience of parenting is complete without an intermittent very strong impression that in some ways children are both the meaning of one’s life and the cause of the ruin of one’s life. Children: the Misery
1). Disappointment with oneself as a parent
2). Disappointment with how they turn out
3). Guilt, exhaustion, lost opportunity
4). Sense of perpetuating human suffering
5). House sticky everywhere

No Children: the Misery
1). Society’s constant message that one has ‘missed out’
2). Loneliness/boredom
3). Lack of constant distraction/calls on one’s time…
4). Sentimental longing for comfort of children in nursing home.

(Break)
"We will make disastrous decisions, we will form mistaken relationships, we will embark on misguided careers, we will invest our savings foolishly, we will spend years on friendships with unreliable knaves – and we will get it mostly wrong around children.

But we can we be consoled by a bitter truth: there are no painless options, for the conditions of existence are intrinsically rather than accidentally frustrating. We can’t get through the tunnel of life without a mauling.

For those of us contemplating whether or not to have children, the message is dark but consoling in its bleakness: you will be at points very unhappy whatever you choose. With either option, you will feel that you have ruined your life – and you will be correct. We do not need to add to our misery by insisting that there would have been another, better way.

There is, curiously, relief to be found in the knowledge of the inevitability of suffering. It is, in the end, never darkness that dooms us, but the wrong sort of hope in that most cruel of fantasies: ‘the right choice’."
 

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