It could really be something for the idea of summer sadness, at least for boys. A study finds that men born in the summer are more vulnerable to the development of depression than men born at other times of the year.
Researchers at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, Canada, conducted the study, an international survey of adults. They found that men, but not women, more likely experienced symptoms of depression later in life if their birth occurred in the summer compared to other seasons. The findings suggest that mothers are exposed to major environmental risk factors that vary during the calendar year, the authors say, including sunshine.
Study author Mikael Mokkonen was inspired to explore this topic with the kind of question you will make a small speech at a party.
“The initial spark of the idea for this research arose when someone wondered if I believed in horoscopes.
Doctors have long known that seasonality can affect our current mental health – the clearest example is seasonal affection disorderA kind of depression that typically appears during the winter months (Summer Sad exists, however). But there is only limited research by looking at a possible link between birth and mental health, according to Mokkonen.
Mokkonen and his team conducted an online survey of 303 adults. Participants provided basic demographic information such as age and responded two questionnaires jointly used to evaluate the level of anxiety and depression of man. After controlling factors such as age and income, the researchers found that summer-born men (specifically people whose biological sex were male) were noticeably more likely to report symptoms of depression than men born ever. The team’s findings were issued Wednesday in Plos Mental Health magazine.
These types of studies can only show correlation between some two things (seasonality at birth and depression in this case) and do not decisively prove that in the summer it can form the mental health of men. The researchers also acknowledge that they have only collected investigative responses for a short two-month period at the beginning of 2024, that means they may not be able to capture the “variations of people in depression and anxiety.” And while some of the participants came from different countries, a major proportion were university students. It is fair to say that this is far from a complete or complete study.
So clearly more research is needed to reproduce and expand this pre -speaking find. There is also the unanswered and likely complex question about why birth in the summer might be specifically worse for men but not women.
Seasonality has long played a role in touching the survival of most species, Mokkonen noted. And while people today are generally more sheltered from the most severe elements of the outside world than were our hunter collectors, the changing aspects of the seasons could still be enough to subtly influence us as we develop in the womb.
“I would say it may be related to the mother’s environmental conditions during pregnancy,” Mokkonen said. “Consider conditions such as temperature and sunlight – how do these conditions vary during the year?”
The researchers plan to continue to explore like other maternal factors, including the mother’s diet and circulating hormonal levels, can affect the subsequent health of their children. Mokkonen also points out that regardless of the season in which they were born, most people in their study reported to have at least some symptoms of anxiety (66%) and depression (84%). In other words, while the seasons can change us a bit, some things are unfortunately frequent through the board.
