Why having sons rather than daughters can drive parents to drink, research reveals

RAISING sons drives parents to drink more than if they had daughters, research suggests.

Parents of boys were found to be more unhealthy than girls’ mums and dads as they hit the bottle more often, ate more junk food and smoked more.

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However, they did get more exercise, with fathers of girls typically the laziest of the lot.

The study, using 18 years of family data and questionnaires, revealed that boys’ parents consumed 0.7 alcoholic drinks a day versus 0.6 for girls’ families.

Boys’ parents smoked 83 times a week compared with 80 for parents of girls.

They were also more likely to eat unhealthily and scoff more snacks.

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Study author Dr Nicholas Rohde, from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, said: “Raising a male child appears to prime toughness, while raising a female child prompts for sensitivity and potentially risk-aversion.”

Dr Rohde said it could come down to being a role model, saying: “Parents who have more daughters tend to be physically healthier, linked to a reduced tendency to smoke cigarettes or drink heavily.

“If there is a prejudice or social norm against female smoking or drinking then parents may change their behaviour to ensure their children conform to expectations.”

But the study of 20,000 people also found girls’ dads took more financial risks — probably because of old-fashioned pressure to act as a breadwinner.

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They might also have worse mental health and were shown to exercise less — probably because their daughters tended to be less active.

Dr Rohde said: “Parents of daughters are more likely to be sedentary and therefore more exposed to health risks associated with a lack of exercise.

“This effect is possibly due to girls being typically less physically active themselves, an effect that may flow over to other household members.”

He added: “The effects are usually small but when aggregated at population level they’re likely to have consequences.”