Parental Loss in Homosexuals

Abstract

In a previous paper (Abe and Moran, 1969) we analysed observed increases in paternal and maternal ages in 291 male homosexuals admitted to the out-patient or in-patient departments of the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals during 1949–1960. It was shown that the mean mothers’ age of these patients was 2.31 years greater than would be expected in the general population after taking account of the years of birth of the patients. The similar shift in mean paternal age, using an indirect method of calculating the expectation, was between 3.15 and 3.55 years. On carrying out an approximate regression analysis of each of these shifts on the other it was shown that the shift in maternal age could be completely explained as an effect due to a shift in paternal age, but not vice versa.