Longitudinal study: Teens who love their parents live longer…
6/14/23
Isn’t it kind of weird to be discussing how teens with a positive, loving relationship with their parents may live longer?
Not really. It’s long been known that a happy and loving family of origin confers unique benefits.
However, breaking research suggests that if you’re able to somehow maintain a positive relationships with your parents during childhood and teenage years, that experience will massively contribute to your overall health and well-being… far into your future adult life..
The study found that teens that are fortunate enough to have a positive and loving assessment of their parents, conveys a constellation of specific and enduring benefits.
This was an important, longitudinal study that was conducted over 14 years.
The researchers tracking approximately 16,000 American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. They considered several factors such as parental warmth, communication, shared time, academic expectations, and overall satisfaction with the tone and intent of their communication.
“The overall pattern of these results suggests strong relationships between adolescents and their mothers and fathers leads to better health and well-being in young adulthood” says Dr. Carol Ford, the corresponding author from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a media release.
Efforts to strengthen parent-adolescent relationships may have important long-term health benefits
Study participants who reported higher levels of love, trust and connection with their parents, also reported an arc of uneventful good health into their 20s and 30s. They were also found to be more optimistic about their future, and had healthier, and more resilient intimate relationships.
It’s also important to note that they also experienced less stress and depression. They were also far less likely to use nicotine or become dependent on alcohol or other substances. This research also discovered a suppressed possibility of an unplanned pregnancies.
“Aligned with developmental science supporting the importance of quality of parenting relationships in child and adolescent health, we add to the literature suggesting links to health through the third decade of life,” explains Dr. Ford.
This includes overall health, mental health, sexual health, and substance use from young adulthood into the 30’s!
“Adolescent perceptions of their relationships with their mothers and their fathers were similarly associated with young adult health outcomes, above and beyond associations with adolescent biological sex, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, and history of child maltreatment,” Dr. Ford and her team write in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The researchers perused two sets of data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health for their research:
“Our goal was to establish a clearer understanding of how different characteristics of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships might be associated with a wide range of favorable outcomes in young adulthood,” says Dr. Ford.
The results indicate that efforts to enhance the quality of parental bonds could have significant benefits for many important young adult health behaviors and outcomes. The benefits extend far beyond mere adolescent health, and reach deeply across a wide range of health domains.
“Our results suggest that interventions focused specifically on influencing adolescents’ perceptions of relationship warmth, satisfaction with relationships and communication, time spent together, and inductive discipline should be prioritized. Although outreach is often to mothers, our findings suggest that interventions should include both mothers and fathers when feasible,” the team concluded.
This is a crucial topic which requires more thought and consideration. While emerging research can describe such efforts, more research is required to explore specific novel approaches, such as assembling a resilient and reliable peer support network, or mentoring through parent networks and mobile messaging interventions targeting parents, to promote deeper engagement between overworked parents, and the ongoing mental health of their teenage children.
