Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
On 30 April I asked, "Dear Reader, how old was your parent with the same sex as you when they had their first kid? How old were you when you had your first kid? Is the length of your education significantly different from that of the parent in question?" As of 7 May, I had 20 responses that covered all three parameters I asked for.
- Proportion of respondents who have a significantly longer education than their parent: 55%
- Median difference of age at first child for the entire population: 5 years
- Median difference of age at first child for respondents whose education is significantly longer/shorter than their parent's: 5 years
- Median difference of age at first child for respondents whose education is about the same as their parent's: 4 years
Boldly generalising from our tiny sample, I find that Aard's readers are not closely emulating their parents' life decisions, and that you guys are spawning regardless of whether you are in the middle of your studies or not.
An error source is that I have only looked at today's completed education levels. If I ask the same people the same questions ten years from now, some of them may have completed a significantly longer education.
Another important factor is that people can't go on spawning forever. All the reported first child births took place at age 39 and lower.
Also, note that women haven't been getting long educations for very long. So men reporting on their dad's age at first child are more likely to have a highly educated parent than are women giving data on their moms.
Education & Careers
