快猫短视频

Having a baby means new responsibilities, and parenthood should make people more mature 鈥� or so the theory goes. In fact, parents鈥� personalities seem more likely to change in other ways. A study now hints that new mothers become more agreeable and extroverted, and new fathers become a little less extroverted, but more conscientious.

Eva Asselmann and Jule Specht at Humboldt University of Berlin studied socio-economic data collected from 19,875 people in Germany who聽have undergone yearly assessments since 1984. The volunteers took personality tests four times between 2002 and 2017 鈥� during which 6891 of聽them became parents.

The assessments were designed to measure aspects of聽the 鈥�Big Five鈥� model of personality, which captures a聽person鈥檚 openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and聽emotional stability.

A number of studies have shown that people in their 20s and 30s tend to become more agreeable, more emotionally stable and more conscientious. But it isn鈥檛 clear why, says Manon van Scheppingen at聽Tilburg University in the聽Netherlands.

鈥淚t could be that it鈥檚 genetics 鈥� that it鈥檚 something that happens when the brain matures,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut we know that the environment plays a role.鈥� Some have theorised that the change might be triggered by becoming a parent, which often happens around this age.

鈥淥ne might assume that the birth of a child relates to an increase in conscientiousness, agreeableness or emotional stability 鈥� but we did not find this,鈥� says Asselmann.

Instead, it turned out that, in the year before the birth of their first child, would-be parents were more likely to be less open and more extroverted than non-parents. This suggests that they are less willing to try new and potentially risky experiences, but are social and assertive.

Both of these traits can change once a baby is born. People become even less open when they become parents, and聽this effect seems to last for at least three years. And while extroversion increases slightly on average after the birth, it declines in the following years.

Parenthood appears to affect men and women in different ways. While women generally seem to become more agreeable in the three years following the聽arrival of a child, men seem to become more conscientious, suggesting they develop more self-control.

This might be a result of people falling into traditional stereotypes, with women spending more time with the baby and men feeling more pressure to provide financial support, say Asselmann and Specht.

But neither gender showed an聽increase in emotional stability, which is thought to be聽a key indicator of maturity. The findings chime with other research, which suggests that new mothers experience a decline in conscientiousness or聽self-control after the birth of聽a child, says van Scheppingen.

New parents needn鈥檛 worry, says van Scheppingen, their altered personalities aren鈥檛 set聽in stone. Plenty of research shows that personality changes over the course of a person鈥檚 life.聽And the changes that occur聽with parenthood might not last聽beyond a few years. 鈥淭he聽changes are small,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as if you become a聽completely different person.鈥�

Sign up to our free Health Check newsletter for a monthly round-up of all the health and fitness news you need to know