More Similar than Different: The Impact of an Older Father on Both Genders

Is this baby girl more prone to anxiety because of her father's age?

            In a society working towards equality within gender, it can be tempting to acknowledge that both genders have individual strengths and areas of growth. But what happens when these areas of growth involve severe deficits in mental health. In Daniel Freeman's article, "Let's talk about the gender differences that really matter – in mental health", he reviews the well-known facts about discrepancies in occurrences in mental health issues between the sexes: "[I]n any given year rates of psychological disorders are 20-40% higher in women than men, with the discrepancy especially marked for common problems such as anxiety, depression and insomnia." In the very introduction of Pink Brain, Blue Brain, Lise Elliot also notes the statistic, as well as stating that "research on sex differences in the adult brain...may have important implications, especially for treating disease like depression, ADHD, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and drug addiction" (Elliot, 11). These differences in rates of mental illness are alarming, and obviously grow with maturation and exposure to hormones as "it's in the teenage years that girls overtake boys in rates of depression and anxiety" (Freeman). Elliot clearly notes, however, that "while hormones are clearly a factor in certain teen behaviors, they are not the whole story. Equally powerful are the social changes of adolescence, which stem from physical development" (Elliot, 291). If these differences in amounts of mental illness between the sexes are not innately because of hormonal differences during puberty, what is causing this discrepancy?

            Lise Elliot shows in her first chapter, Pink and Blue in the Womb, that there are only modest differences in the brains of male and female fetuses. Development may have small effects on wiring, but what if there was a reason before conception that the sweet little girl would be more likely to be depressed or that the bouncing baby boy would have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  Normally, there is a focus on older mothers having higher instances of babies born with things such as Down’s syndrome, as well as development of the child being focused on how the mother interacts with the baby. Now, these female-emphasized roles have been biologically implicated in males. The Guardian very recently wrote the article “Children of older men at greater risk of mental illness, study suggests”, showing that children with older fathers [over the age of 45] children with older fathers were more often diagnosed with disorders such as autism, psychosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. They also reported more drug abuse and suicide attempts.” Furthermore, “[a]ccording to the study, the children of fathers aged 45 and over were 3.5 times as likely to have autism, had more than twice the risk of psychotic disorders, suicidal behaviour and drug abuse, and had a 13-fold greater risk of ADHD. Fewer than 1% of children born to fathers younger than 45 had bipolar disorder, a figure that rose to about 14% in their siblings when fathers were 45 or older. In many cases, the risk of each disorder rose steadily with the father's age. Children with older fathers had a 60% greater risk of poor performance at age 15, defined as the equivalent of an overall fail grade across 16 academic subjects. They were also 70% more likely to spend less than 10 years in formal education.” On top of differences of brain function through a difference in sex, there is now a further biological basis for why the daughter might have a higher risk of suicidal behavior while the son might be prone to ADHD. At this point, both mother and father could have the same impact biologically and developmentally on their child despite their inherent sexual differences. The father can affect the neurological basis for depression in his daughter, even though the mother is more prone to the disorder due to her sex. Regardless of whether these sexual differences are truly biological or due to nurture, parents will affect their children’s brain structure and function  

Citations

Elliot, Lise. Pink Brain, Blue Brain. N.p.: Macmillan Australia, 2010. Print.

 

Freeman, Daniel, and Jason Freeman. "Let's Talk about the Gender Differences That Really Matter – in Mental Health." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 13 Dec. 2013. Web.

Sample, Ian. "Children of Older Men at Greater Risk of Mental Illness, Study Suggests." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 26 Feb. 2014. Web.