It was found that children who had a good relationship with their parents were healthier as adults. It suggests that improving the relationship between parents and children can help not only in improving children’s physical, mental and sexual health, but also in reducing their use of alcohol and drugs in early adulthood.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescence to Adult Health, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), USA, investigated how parent-adolescent relationships affect children’s health. More than 15,000 adults aged 12 to 17 who enrolled in the study in the mid-1990s were included.
In this study, participants reported specific and measurable characteristics of their relationships with their parents during adolescence and their association with health outcomes measured 14 years later was examined.
Relationships with parents were measured based on characteristics such as parental affection, communication, time spent together, and academic expectations. Levels of stress, depression, optimism, nicotine dependence and substance abuse, and other general health measures were collected when they were between the ages of 24 and 32.
The researchers grouped the data based on parental relationships, controlling for age, race, family structure and other factors. As a result, participants reported high levels of affection, communication, time spent together, academic expectations, relationship or communication satisfaction, and inductive discipline in their relationship with their parents that sets clear limits and fosters autonomy. .The higher the age, the higher the general health level of early adults was found to be significantly higher.
Likewise, their optimism and relationship quality were significantly higher, and their stress levels and depressive symptoms were lower.
In addition, the more time spent with parents and the higher the level of relationship or communication satisfaction, the lower the level of nicotine dependence and substance abuse.
“The general pattern in our results suggests that strong relationships between adolescents and their parents lead to better health and happiness during early adulthood,” the researchers said.
The results of this study were published under the title ”Associations between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships and young adult health” in ‘JAMA Network Open’, the medical journal of the American Medical Association.
