RWA scores decline with age but far more sharply among the childless

Evidence

Transposing the means to equivalence with a thirty-item test answered on a —4to +4 basis, the 86 alumni had a mean score of 153.5 in 1976, and a significantly lower mean of 140.0 in 1994, The 24 alumni who were not parents (who had gone to school for 18.0 years on average) showed a significant drop of 28.3 points, from 158.9 to 130.6 (or 18%). The 62 alumni who had experienced the bliss of 2:00 a.m. feedings, tooth eruption, and the Terrible Twos, who had 17.8 years of education, also showed a drop, of 7.8 points, from 151.3 to 143.5 (or 5%), which also was significant (t = 2.06; p < .05). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1129