Synonyms
Definition
Age of mother at birth of her child.
Introduction
Timing of parenthood varies strongly within individuals, across societies, and over time. Whether a woman gives birth to a child at ages below 20 or above 40 may have important implications for her well-being, as well as for that of her child. The process of postponement of parenthood has fuelled concerns about the implications of fertility postponement on the health of the children. There may, however, also be important benefits and advantages among those that are born to older parents. This article briefly reviews the characteristics of older mothers and current literature on both the potential positive and negative effects of older-age motherhood.
Characteristics of Older Mothers
A dominant demographic trend in the latter half of the twentieth century that has continued into the early twenty-first century has been fertility postponement and increasing age at first birth. For...
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References
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Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the European Research Council Grant 336475 (COSTPOST).
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Myrskylä, M. (2019). Maternal Age. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_777-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_777-1
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