A new study has found that the children of older fathers have a much greater risk of serious mental illness.
The findings come from a huge number of people: everyone born in Sweden between 1973 and 2001. The researchers included over 2.5 million people, representing almost 90% of the population.
They found associations between older fathers and psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism and ADHD.
When they compared fathers who were 24-years-old with those who were 45-years old, they found that children of the older fathers were:
- 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder,
- 13 times more likely to have ADHD,
- 3.5 times more likely to have autism,
- 2.5 times more likely to have suicidal behaviour.
The findings remained after they controlled for birth order, education and a host of other variables.
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Category(s):Child Development, Parenting
Source material from Psy Blog
