父母管束過多造成終生心理創傷
Overly-controlling parents cause their children lifelong psychological damage
Parents who exert too much control over their children could be causing them lifelong psychological damage, according to a study which tracked a group of people born in the 1940s until the present day.
一項針對上世紀40年代生人的跟蹤調查顯示,父母對子女管束過多可能會對下一代造成終生的心理傷害.
Researchers found that people who reported their parents had intruded on their privacy in childhood or encouraged dependence were more likely to have low scores in surveys of happiness and general wellbeing carried out in their teens, their 30s, their 40s and even their 60s.
研究人員發現,那些表示童年時被父母侵犯過隱私或被鼓勵依賴父母的調查對象,在他們青少年時期、30多歲、40多歲甚至60多歲時進行的總體幸福感測試中得低分的可能性更大.
The negative impact on wellbeing was comparable in scale to that observed in people who have suffered a bereavement, experts from University College London (UCL) said.
倫敦大學學院的專家表示,家長控制欲過強對幸福感造成的負面影響與痛失至親對人們產生的負面影響程度相近.
In contrast, people who said their parents were more caring, warm and responsive to their needs tended to be more content well into adulthood.
相比之下,那些說父母關愛體貼、積極響應他們需求的調查對象在成年后往往更心滿意足.
The findings are the culmination of a survey which has tracked more than 5,000 people since their birth in 1946. It is well-established that childhood influences can have profound effect on the developing brain, but this is one of the first studies that have attempted to measure their impact over such a long period of time.
通過對5000余名1946年生人進行長期的跟蹤調查,研究人員得出了上述結果.眾所周知,兒童時期的經歷對發育中的大腦會產生深遠的影響.不過,這個研究是針對這種影響進行時間跨度這么大的先驅之一.
Information on parenting styles was only available from the study participants themselves, who were asked to recall their childhoods when in their 40s, and may therefore suffer from a degree of so-called recall bias – unhappy people may be more likely to depict their parents as controlling.
有關父母育兒方式的信息全部由研究參與者提供, 40多歲的他們被要求回憶童年,可能會出現一定程度的所謂"回憶偏倚"——不幸福的人更可能將他們的父母描述為控制欲強的人.
However the researchers said the findings chimed with previous studies which have shown that children who are able to form secure emotional bonds with parents are more likely to have secure, happy relationships later in life.
然而,研究者也表示,這項調查的發現與過往研究結論是吻合的.過往研究發現,能夠跟父母建立起牢固的情感紐帶的孩子,日后感情關系穩固、幸福的可能性更大.
"Parents also give us stable base from which to explore the world while warmth and responsiveness has been shown to promote social and emotional development," said Dr Mai Stafford, of the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Lifelong Health and Ageing unit at UCL.
