Parental Units With Uncommon Family Structure Exhibit Empowered Cerebral Capacities According to Study
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from Rutgers University and Yale University have found a surprising link between family size and cognitive health in parents. Contrary to popular belief, the study suggests that having more children may not be detrimental to a parent's brain health, but rather, it could potentially lead to stronger brains.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined data from over 37,000 individuals, including 19,964 females and 17,607 males, who are part of the U.K. Biobank. The research followed the lives of half a million volunteers to learn who falls ill and why, so scientists can create better ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat diseases.
Avran Holmes, one of the study's authors, stated that parenthood is a significant life event that can affect brain functioning. The study's findings showed a positive correlation between parenthood and functional connectivity, particularly within the somato/motor network. This means that parents who have a higher number of children have stronger brains, a finding that was consistent for both women and men.
The study's findings could potentially be beneficial for adoptive parents as well. The effect was not attributed to pregnancy, implying that there is no biological connection. Instead, it appears that the caregiving role itself, whether it be grandparents or childcare workers, may also benefit from the brain benefits associated with having multiple children.
This new finding contradicts the common belief that having a lot of kids is a thing of the past due to concerns about the state of the world. However, the study's results suggest that people may be making a less-than-optimal choice for brain health by choosing to have smaller families now than they did in the past. In 1960, the average American family consisted of almost four people, but now the number is just three.
It's important to note that this study does not directly indicate that having more children is associated with better cognitive health in parents from a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). While other PNAS articles cover topics related to cognitive function, genetics, brain criticality, and interventions, none report findings about the number of children and parental cognitive health explicitly.
Mary-Faith Martinez, a writer who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics, brings this fascinating discovery to light. As the U.S. birth rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, as Millennials and Gen Z report not wanting to have kids, this study could offer new insights into the relationship between family size and cognitive health.
- The groundbreaking study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that having more children could potentially lead to stronger brains in parents, questioning the common belief that large families are detrimental to brain health.
- Contrary to the declining birth rate among Millennials and Gen Z, this study suggests that a larger family size might have benefits for parents' cognitive health, as part of a lifestyle focus on health-and-wellness and family-health.
- The caregiving role, whether performed by parents, grandparents, or childcare workers, could offer cognitive benefits that may be more far-reaching than previously thought, as supported by recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
