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Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

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Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#51

Post by collyw »

beaumartinez wrote: post #38
awjr wrote: post #35

Would be interesting to look at the 'stresses' that occur within schools. My 11 year old daughter was born on the 30th of August. Ergo she is the youngest in the year at school. She is studying with people that have a year of development on her. She is doing fantastically well but works hard to achieve that result. My hypothesis is that the age cut off in schools, unduly puts stress on the younger children in a class…

I'd think the opposite. Since she is used to having to work hard from a young age, she will be more successful in life. Others who coasted through—whom were used to everything being relatively easier—will not have the experience she has already accrued when faced with a harder challenge.

Malcom Gladwell's Outsiders book basically covers this topic. Usually the ones who do best are the ones with an early head start. One example that I remember is that oldest kids in class are usually the biggest, that (generally) makes them better at sport early in life. That leads to extra coaching for sports teams, more practice and the effect snowballs.

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#52

Post by mhurron »

ryanjshaw wrote: post #30
Smirnoff wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purely speculative but people whom I know to be the most successful in education and career happen to be born between November and January. Age doesn't matter though. Some of them jumped a few years ahead of their classmates so they surely weren't the oldest in their classes. My mother did think that being the oldest helps (or as she would put it: "School and work can wait. Enjoy your childhood while you can"), so my…

Speaking from experience, being the youngest appears to have no upsides: you're expected to perform as well as people older than you which creates tons of pressure, you're probably physically smaller which can impact confidence/sports/romance, socially you're a year behind, and it only gets worse later - in many countries the legal drinking age (18) aligns with the average age of entering university which means your…

You're projecting. My experiences as the youngest, and smallest in the class until the last year of high school, left me with the following experience - No impact, no differences based on being younger and smaller.

I would say what you're saying are results of being younger are actually results of your personality traits, and being a year older would have still lead you to having similar experiences at school.

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#53

Post by tomp »

desdiv wrote: post #10
jcampbell1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the rules which vary by location, but you want your kid to be the oldest in the class. Your older kid is going to believe she is very bright in 1st grade, and have a lifetime of confidence to achieve great things. The real reason she was such a good student in 1st grade is because she was just older.

I know this sub-thread started in half-jest, but your response got me thinking: 1. Month of birth directly determines a child's age compared to their classmates. 2. An older child among younger peers performs better academically. 3. Academic aptitude is correlated with income. 4. Income is correlated with longevity. Admittedly, hypothesis #2 is iffy. And the good old "correlation is not causation" adage applies for #…

You could easily reverse 2.

2. A younger child among older peers needs to work harder to achieve comparable results.

3. Work ethics are correlated with income.

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#54

Post by awjr »

theklub wrote: post #42
awjr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure that makes sense. She potentially experiences 12 years of increased stress compared to her peers. I'm not implying that later in life, she will have better tools for work, but that her body would have spent most of her formative years under more stress. This would then reflect in a shorter lifespan. Note however that this concept she would gain the tools for hard working in itself is flawed. Studies have sho…

If stress from school caused people to die earlier I think we'd know by now.

This is very hard to measure as you would be looking at teaching practices in the 1920-1940s to determine the effects on life expectancy. I think potentially, nationally, this would be possible as most nations have been quite consistent on their school starting times.

I do think having a breakdown by month, not just quarter could be even more insightful.

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#55

Post by kevinmchugh »

awjr wrote: post #35

Would be interesting to look at the 'stresses' that occur within schools. My 11 year old daughter was born on the 30th of August. Ergo she is the youngest in the year at school. She is studying with people that have a year of development on her. She is doing fantastically well but works hard to achieve that result. My hypothesis is that the age cut off in schools, unduly puts stress on the younger children in a class…

The cutoff benefits the youngest students academically. They get used to working harder to catch up, and never stop working harder, apparently.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6421473

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#56

Post by randomsearch »

awjr wrote: post #35

Would be interesting to look at the 'stresses' that occur within schools. My 11 year old daughter was born on the 30th of August. Ergo she is the youngest in the year at school. She is studying with people that have a year of development on her. She is doing fantastically well but works hard to achieve that result. My hypothesis is that the age cut off in schools, unduly puts stress on the younger children in a class…

>Would be interesting to look at the 'stresses' that occur within schools

For this to be an accurate explanation, given their data, schools in the southern hemisphere would have to start school six months later. Do they?

Your question is interesting nonetheless.

Re: Lifespan depends on month of birth (2000)

#57

Post by darkmethod »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #4
jcampbell1 wrote: post #3

This is interesting. They seem to think it is in utero effect. Maybe Vitamin D? I wondered if they considered if the cause is age when starting school. I know that birth month has pretty powerful effects for educational attainment.

What month should I conceive my child to maximize their educational attainment? I'm only half joking.

My team of five software developers were all born in December. I didn't think anything of it until I saw this post on HN.
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