There are many things you might have wanted to blame your mum for as
an angry 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.
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The results revealed that both the number of marriages and the number
of cohabiting partners a mother had 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.”
