New Light on the Plight of Winter Babies

Wall Street Journal ^ | September 23, 2009 | Justin Lahart

[madison10]

Children born in the winter months already have a few strikes against them. Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year. Researchers have spent years documenting the effect and trying to understand it.

But economists Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman at the University of Notre Dame may have uncovered an overlooked explanation for why season of birth matters.

Their discovery challenges the validity of past research and highlights how seemingly safe assumptions economists make may overlook key causes of curious effects. And they came across it by accident.

In 2007, Mr. Hungerman was doing research on sibling behavior when he noticed that children in the same families tend to be born at the same time of year. Meanwhile, Ms. Buckles was examining the economic factors that lead to multiple births, and coming across what looked like a relationship between mothers' education levels and when children were born.

"I was just playing around with the data and getting an unexpected result," Ms. Buckles recalls of the tendency that less educated mothers were having children in winter...

[madison10]

Understand the winter connection, but tying this into a family's economic status seems silly.

[coloradan]

Why do you think it’s silly? If certain demographic factors incline mothers to give birth at certain times of the year, why shouldn’t there be a relationship between birthday and those factors, which incidentally include socioeconomic implications?

[freebilly]

Summary: Poor people do it in the spring. They don't do it in the summer because they don't have A/C....

Sure....

[proxy_user]

The reasons why are fairly self-evident, when you think about it.

When are young, poorly-educated girls most likely to fall in love and conceive a child? In the spring, the season of fertility. Not being big on planning, they do what comes naturally.

Now take the case of an educated married couple who is planning to have a child. They know that it is much more convenient to have a newborn in May or June, when you don’t have to worry about wrapping the baby up in multiple blankets just to go to the grocery store. They pick their target date, and work backwards.

Naturally, everything does not always work out the way it is planned or not planned, but the overall numbers tell the story.

[DBrow]

Well, Pisces, Capricorns, and Aquarians are at a disadvantage because of the sign they were born under, it’s that simple.

[madison10]

I think it’s silly because in my family alone out of 13 people there are six winter babies, and economic status has nothing to do with it.

[Verginius Rufus]

I guess it works—the longest-lived President was Gerald Ford, who was born in July. He beat Ronald Reagan for longevity by a couple of months—Reagan was born in February. Lincoln was also born in February and he was only 56 when he died. McKinley and FDR were January babies and died at 58 and 63 respectively.

[republicangel]

That is funny. I had a baby in August in south Florida. Learned my lesson. The next one came in February in Virginia. Lol I was only thinking about my own comfort.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Guess she has never been 9 months pregnant during one of the hottest summers on record. One of those “damn, it’s so hot the ground is cracking” summers.

My next 2 kids were March babies. When we are pregnant, it is IS all about us.

It is in the manual.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

All three of us brothers and sister were born in the severe high plains winters and we are just doing fine!

[ladyjane]

The book “Outliers” has an interesting section about hockey players in Canada. All the really good professional hockey players are born in January and February. You’ll have to read the book to find out why.

[The_Reader_David]

Silly or not, if that's what the empirical evidence shows, we're stuck with the fact. (And the implications of the mother's socioeconomic status for children's prospects on average is irrefutable.)

[Colonel Kangaroo]

My grandmother was born in winter and she missed her 99th birthday by about a week.

[The_Reader_David]

Of course you are: the article argues that the effect is due to single, poor, uneducated mothers for whatever reason having a propensity to have children more often in the winter. I’m guessing you came from an intact family above the poverty line, and most likely with parents who completed at least high school if not college (on the basis of your report of you and your siblings doing fine).

[buccaneer81]

Lincoln was also born in February and he was only 56 when he died.

Because he got SHOT!!

[Shadowstrike]

Well I can blow that theory all the Hades and back.

I was born in December, was in Honor classes in school, and a member of Mensa.
:)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*** I’m guessing you came from an intact family above the poverty line, and most likely with parents who completed at least high school if not college (on the basis of your report of you and your siblings doing fine).***

Intact family—yes!
Alcoholic—yes!
Below Poverty line —yes!
Lived in shacks, (even in an old chhicken house)
Dad completed 8th grade.
Mom same.

We kids simply decided not to live poor and we worked our way out of it, got what education we could and got good jobs and stuck with it! We learned the value of a dollar very young!

My brother was college educated,
I was militry and job educated.
Sister also got trade schooling.

I have never been without a job since 1964! Till now. I am retired with decent pensions! :-)

[Pontiac]

Now take the case of an educated married couple who is planning to have a child. They know that it is much more convenient to have a newborn in May or June, when you don’t have to worry about wrapping the baby up in multiple blankets just to go to the grocery store. They pick their target date, and work backwards.

You have a point there.

Babies are also at a disadvantage in the area of immunities and the winter months are the cold and flue months.

Many cultures had the tradition of the mother’s time of seclusion. The first few months after the baby was born the mother and baby would be isolated from the rest of the community. Only the mother’s mother would be permitted to visit to bring food and other necessities.

The wisdom of the ages forgotten by most people. I often question young people who thoughtlessly take their new born everywhere exposing them to every possible contagion.

[Smokin' Joe]

What a crock of horse puckey. Winter babies: me, my siblings, my SIL, Aunt, Grandfather, and Mother; all are well above average intelligence, One graduated Magna cum Laude with a double major in under 4 years.

Winter stretches from Dec. 22 to March 21, and that just happens to fit with the consummation of June weddings...

Subsequent children were often concieved at birth of the previous child +3-4 months, if they follow immediately, and in my generation there was less planning, simply because the pill was not around yet.

It was not a matter of being rich or poor.

I have above average income, as do most in the family, and am in good health (Thank God) taking no daily medication even though I am a great-grandfather. My parents are still alive and kicking, as is one Grandparent (born in late Fall) who is flirting with the century mark.

What nonsense.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, getting shot did mean that Lincoln died sooner than he would have. Darwin was born the same day and lived to 73. McKinley's death was also premature for the same reason that Lincoln's was (although in his case better medical care might have enabled him to survive the shooting).

The oldest person I know who is still alive, at 103, has an August birthday. The next-oldest person I have known, who died just before her 102nd birthday, was also born in the summer.

Of my four grandparents, the two who were born in the winter had longer lifespans than the two who were born in the spring.