There are
many things you might have wanted to blame your mum for as an angsty teen, but
while she likely isn’t responsible for ‘ruining your life,’ she may have had an
impact on your love life.
A new study,
published on November 13 in the journal PLoS One, has linked the number of
partners an adult has to their mother’s relationship history.
The
research, using data on thousands of people spanning decades, found that for
every additional relationship a mother had, the number of partners their
children had increased by an average of six per cent.
So
essentially, if your mum’s dating history was patchy, you’re more likely to
experience something similar.
For the
study, researchers analysed data from national surveys of youth, which follow
participants for at least 24 years. They tracked 7,152 people and their
biological mothers in terms of marriage, divorce, cohabiting relationships, and
breakups.
The results
revealed that both the number of marriages and the number of cohabiting
partners a mother had a link to how many partners their children had.
Previous
research has revealed that children of parents who divorce are more likely to
divorce themselves, compared to those whose mother and father stay married, but
this latest research widened the picture.
“It’s not
just divorce now – many children are seeing their parents divorce, start new
cohabiting relationships, and having those end as well,” said Prof. Claire Kamp
Dush, who led the research.
“All of
these relationships can influence children’s outcomes, as we see in this
study.”
The study
also revealed that people who were exposed to mothers’ cohabitation for longer
stretches had more romantic partners than siblings who were exposed to less
cohabitation.
“You may see
cohabitation as an attractive, lower-commitment type of relationship if you’ve
seen your mother in such a relationship for a longer time,” Kamp Dush said.
“That may
lead to more partners since cohabiting relationships are more likely to
break-up.”
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