Reliance on parents means childhood can last until 40

CHILDHOOD could last until 40 years of age because of an increasing reliance on parents, a scientist has said.

This is because the transition from care receiver to caregiver is delayed by school, work and other commitments extending the age during which a person needs looking after.

Humans spend far longer than most other animal species being cared for by their parents, with childhood and adolescence being substantial parts of life.

Dr Brenna Hassett, an anthropologist at UCL in London, told an audience at

‘A species that has an equally long childhood is a whale. But we don’t live for 300 years’

the Cheltenham Science Festival that the length of childhood is longer now than it was in years past.

“Humans tend to have a long, long period of dependency – I’m going with 40 but, you know, it could be much longer or much shorter depending on what your parents are willing to tolerate,” she said after her talk.

The author of Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood added: “I would like to consider 15 years of my life an ‘urban childhood’ where I am a net loss to everybody.

“And then I had my own kid at 39, and finally turned into someone pouring investment into that particular sink. I was able to have this extraordinarily long childhood because my parents helped me out.”

Dr Hassett added that the length of our childhood is now comparable to a species that should live for three centuries.

“If you compare us to other species that have an equally long childhood, you get a whale. [But] we don’t live for 300 years,” she said.