Brief report: no association between parental age and extreme social-communicative autistic traits in the general population.
Older moms and dads do not produce more extreme social-communication traits in typically developing children.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at moms’ and dads’ ages when kids were born.
They asked whether older parents have children with more extreme social-communication traits.
The sample came from the general population, not a clinic.
What they found
Parental age showed no link to high autistic-trait scores.
Older moms and dads were just as likely to have sociable kids.
How this fits with other research
Chou et al. (2007) saw the same null result in a clinic sample years earlier.
Capio et al. (2013) seems to disagree: they found older dads raised autism odds in Finnish medical records.
The clash disappears when you notice M et al. studied diagnosed autism, while B et al. studied everyday traits in typical kids.
Shire et al. (2022) extend the idea by showing ‘biologic age’ (not birthday age) may matter for infant skills.
Why it matters
When parents ask if their age caused their child’s quirks, you can say the evidence points to ‘no’ for sub-clinical traits.
Save referral energy for clear red flags, not birth certificates.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This is the first investigation of the relationship between parental age and extreme social-communicative autistic traits in the general population. The parents of 5,246 children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) completed the Social and Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC). The association between parental age and SCDC scores was assessed in the full sample and among high scoring individuals (e.g. top 5%, 1%). There was no association between parental age and social-communicative autistic traits in the general population. Neither maternal nor paternal age was associated with extreme scores. These findings suggest that advanced parental age does not confer increased risk for extreme social and communication impairment assessed quantitatively.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2011 · doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1202-4