Fond memories of father’s make children stronger
A new study has found that those of us with strong and fond memories of our fathers are able to better cope with life’s stresses and strains.
A recent study looking into how our childhood effects our mental health later on in life, spoke to more than 900 men and women between the ages of 25 and 74 on the telephone once a day for eight days.
The researchers took into account factors such as age, childhood, income, whether or not their parents were still alive and focussed on parent child relations between both mother and father and not just the mother.
The researchers found that men who had reported having a strong and happy relationship with their father during childhood were more likely to experience less emotional stress in their every day lives than those who had a turbulent relationship. However, this was not found to be the case among women in the study.
Professor Mallers was head researcher on the study and has said that the quality of child parent relationships directly effects how many stressful events we experience on a daily basis. This was reflected in the results of the study, which showed that those who had poor relationships with their parents experienced more stressful incidents in the eight day study period.
Though researchers are unable to pinpoint the reason that men’s relationships with their father had such a large influence on stress, what they have discovered is that fathers have a unique style of interacting with their children, especially with their sons: ”We now need more research to help us uncover further influences of both mothers and fathers on the enduring emotional experiences of their children.”