Babies given more love and affection by their mothers deal better with stress and anxiety when they grow up, research has shown。
The study looked at eight-month-old children - meaning even the very earliest life experiences which we do not remember in adulthood can influence our well-being。
Lots of maternal love makes children form a secure bond with their mothers, meaning they are able to feel secure in relationships when grown up, will have better social skills and cope better with life's difficulties, the study found。
Despite growing interest in how early life affects us in adulthood, most previous studies have relied on people's recollections - whereas this research tracked participants from early childhood to adult life。
The researchers, led by Dr Joanna Maselko of Duke University in North Carolina, rated the relationships of 482 eight-month-old babies with their mothers during routine developmental assessment。
They looked at how well the mother had coped with her child's developmental tests and how she had responded to the child's performance。
The amount of affection and attention she gave to her child was categorised into groups ranging from 'negative' to ' extravagant'。
Mental health was then assessed when the babies had grown up - at the average age of 34.
Adults whose mothers had been the most affectionate during their assessment as babies had the lowest levels of anxiety, hostility and general distress。
一項(xiàng)研究顯示,嬰兒時(shí)期得到更多母愛(ài)的孩子長(zhǎng)大后能更好地應(yīng)對(duì)壓力和焦慮情緒。
這項(xiàng)研究以八個(gè)月大的孩子為對(duì)象,結(jié)果表明人最初的人生經(jīng)歷會(huì)影響到成年后的幸福,盡管我們長(zhǎng)大后并不記得這些事情。
研究發(fā)現(xiàn),給予孩子足夠多的母愛(ài)會(huì)在孩子和母親之間形成牢固的紐帶關(guān)系,這意味著孩子長(zhǎng)大后在情感方面會(huì)更有安全感,社交能力更強(qiáng),并且能夠更好地處理生活中的難題。
盡管有關(guān)幼年生活對(duì)成年后的影響的研究越來(lái)越多,但之前的大多數(shù)研究主要是依靠人們的回憶,而這一研究則對(duì)嬰兒時(shí)期到成年的成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程進(jìn)行了追蹤。
美國(guó)北卡羅來(lái)納州杜克大學(xué)的喬安娜•馬賽爾可博士帶領(lǐng)的研究小組通過(guò)日常的成長(zhǎng)評(píng)價(jià)對(duì)482個(gè)八個(gè)月大的孩子和母親的關(guān)系進(jìn)行了評(píng)估。
他們觀察母親如何應(yīng)對(duì)孩子的成長(zhǎng)測(cè)試,以及對(duì)孩子在測(cè)試中的表現(xiàn)作何反應(yīng)。
母親給予孩子的關(guān)愛(ài)和關(guān)注程度被分為從“消極”到“溺愛(ài)”幾個(gè)等級(jí)。
等這些小孩長(zhǎng)大后,平均年齡達(dá)到34歲時(shí),研究人員對(duì)他們的心理健康進(jìn)行了評(píng)估。
在嬰兒時(shí)期的評(píng)估中得到母親關(guān)愛(ài)最多的孩子成年后的焦慮、敵對(duì)情緒和整體憂郁水平最低。