A new study published in the journal Pediatrics has found that the duration of breastfeeding may have an impact on boys' cognitive abilities later in life.

The study evaluated a group of 1,038 10-year-olds whose mothers enrolled in the Raine Study, a long-term development program in Western Australia. The mothers were surveyed regarding the length of time they breastfed their children, with the results of the survey compared to the children's performance on standardized tests of math, reading, writing and spelling.

After adjusting for gender, family income, maternal factors and early literary stimulation, the researchers found that the 10-year-old boys who were breastfed for six months or longer displayed stronger academic performance than their counterparts who had not been breastfed as long. The same association was not found to be the case, however, for 10-year-old girls.

The research was conducted at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia in Perth. According to its website, the Telethon Institute was founded in 1990 and works to further multi-disciplinary approaches to medical issues.