Scientists discover parents with at least one son have a faster rate of cognitive decline
While society worries about how difficult it will be to raise a girl child, science tells an entirely different story. People tend to believe that daughters are more difficult to deal with and families with multiple girl children are often pitied on. A new study challenged these patriarchal beliefs and stated that parenting sons might pose a bigger challenge for parents later in their lives. According to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, experts have found that having sons may speed up the cognitive decline in parents.
Parents raising a boy child can suffer from dementia and other cognitive disabilities sooner than those raising daughters. The research team from Charles University in Prague and Columbia University of New York studied the data and monitored over 30,000 participants and their spouses who are above the age of 50. Out of the lot, about 13,222 parents who have at least one son ended up experiencing cognitive decline faster than those without a son. To test the participants and check whether they have a possibility of cognitive decline or not, the researchers asked them to complete regular cognitive tests that looked into their mental skills.
The research determined that raising a son also affected their memory, concentration and ability to think and understand a situation to a great extent. The participants were given a list of 10 words to remember. They were also tasked with counting down from 100 in sevens and counting backward for 10 continuous numbers. “Our results also suggest that cognitive decline was faster among parents of multiple sons, compared to parents with only daughters,” the authors of the study said in the paper. “Thus, the results support the theory that having sons might have a long-term negative effect on parental cognition.”
Both parents showed signs of similar mental deterioration. The experts did not fully reveal the exact reason for the faster cognitive decline in parents with sons compared to those having daughters, they gave some thoughtful inferences. The study suggested that it is "maybe because daughters are more likely to look after their parents in their elderly years and offer emotional support." The thought of getting the support itself keeps the parents healthier as they grow older. “Daughters provide more social and emotional support than sons and often become informal caregivers," the lead author of the study, Katrin Wolfova, revealed.
Hence, it was deduced that the gender of a child does play an important role in the neurological health of their parents. However, that might not be the only reason why parents of boys experience cognitive decline faster. Their diet, lifestyle and exercise habits and the health history of their family play an important part too. This is also an indication to raise boy children to be "empathetic caretakers" - not just for their family members but also for others around them.