Researchers encourage mothers to lay on the hugs and kisses
According to a new study, mothers that are affectionate to their babies end up with well-adjusted adult children later in life.
A 30-year Duke study has revealed that adults who had a mother who laid on the hugs and kisses when they were little are now less likely to suffer from anxiety and are more confident adults.
The study began with 482 people who were just eight months old in the 1960s. They touched base with these participants years later, in late 1990. At the time of their reconnection, the participants were 34. The participants reported that about 85 percent of their parents displayed normal levels of affection. Only 10 percent reported low levels affection and 6 percent reported high levels of affection.
Each participant was given a questionnaire in order to determine levels of anxiety and hostility and to determine general levels of distress. It was found that the participants who had mothers that had been the most affectionate when they were babies exhibited the lowest levels of hostility, anxiety and general distress.
Most telling was the difference in anxiety levels reported in children with the most affectionate mothers and those whose mothers had displayed low or normal levels of affection. It was shown that there was a seven point difference between the two. Also telling was the three point difference that was reported in levels of hostility and the five point difference in overall distress scores. To sum it up, the more affectionate the mother was to their baby, the less likely they were to display distress as an adult.
Researchers noted that a mother’s affection may enable and promote emotional development. This will in turn help a child to develop social skills that are important for coping with general stress and anxiety.
Researchers concluded their report by stating, “These findings suggest that early nurturing and warmth have long-lasting positive effects on mental health well into adulthood.”
Moms Need To Lay On The Affection Says Study
Is it possible at all that the no-so-well adjusted participants who had anger issues also possibly had a skewed version of how affectionate their parents had been toward them? Or do these experts not consider such obvious things?
Big problem with this study: the data is correlational. The conclusion that the mental health levels were more positive due to increased affection during youth can in no way be supported by the study. The study can say that there is a correlation, but there is no way to determine the actual mechanism for the statistical correlation. It is very possible that people who are more mentally healthy are more likely to remember their childhood fondly (whether or not the recollections are true). The researchers (and the media) need to be more responsible in interpreting these types of studies.
I’m sure affection is great and should be encouraged for all sorts of reasons. However, this study seems to be useless as far as the claimed conclusions. It assumes that correlation = causation. It does have the caveat that other secondary factors might be in effect (feeding habits, etc.), but more importantly it didn’t control for heredity.
Perhaps “affectionate moms” are genetically prone to be psychologically well with low anxiety and that leads them to (a) be more affectionate, and (b) pass on the low anxiety genes to their children. Perhaps if the child does not have these genes no amount of affection will make up for it.
There’s no way of knowing which is the case without proper controls such as identical twins brought up in different “affection” environments and adopted children brought up with biological ones in the same “affection” environment.
There is no evidence the conclusions are wrong, but there’s also none (in the study) that they are right. This is the same mistake made with all of those “play classical music” studies that showed smarter kids but failed to produce anything when other people played such music. It’s because people who naturally played classical music on their own were already smarter and passed those genes on.