Researchers discovered that toddlers whose moms received specific coaching in talking about memories had higher levels of well-being. The findings were reported in the journal “Journal of Personality.” The study discovered that if their moms had been taught the new conversational strategies 14 years earlier, 15-year-olds told more cohesive accounts about pivotal moments in their lives. These teenagers also reported fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety when compared to adolescents in the study whose mothers had normal conversations with their toddlers.
According to University of Otago research, toddlers whose moms received extra coaching in talking about memories developed into teenagers who are happier. The study discovered that if their moms had been taught the new conversational strategies 14 years earlier, 15-year-olds told more cohesive accounts about pivotal moments in their lives.
The study, published in the Journal of Personality, is a follow-up to a remembering intervention in which 115 mothers of toddlers were randomly allocated to either a control group or elaborative reminiscing training for a year. Elaborative reminiscing is having open and receptive dialogues with young children about everyday previous occurrences like feeding ducks at the park.
Our findings imply that brief coaching sessions with parents early in children’s lives can have long-term advantages, both for how teenagers digest and talk about stressful life events and for their well-being.
Professor Elaine Reese
Project lead Professor Elaine Reese, of the Department of Psychology, says adolescents whose mothers had participated in the earlier coaching sessions narrated difficult events from their lives — such as parental divorce or cyber-bullying — with more insight into how the experience had shaped them as people.
The study, which was first supported by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society Te Aprangi, is the first to demonstrate the long-term benefits of mother-child remembering for the development of teenagers. Wellness refers to your whole health as opposed to only your physical health. Wellness includes not only being free of sickness, illness, or stress, but also having a sense of purpose in life, being emotionally well, participating actively in your work and leisure time, having enjoyable relationships, and being happy.
Wellness encompasses all facets of your life in addition to your physical health. It is critical to take care of your well-being and invest time in your well-being if you want to live fulfilling and happy lives. Wellness comprises the entire human being, including the mind, body, and spirit, as well as all of the factors that contribute to a person’s overall well-being. A healthy life is the consequence of overall wholeness, whether it is emotional, physical, spiritual, or other.
“Our findings imply that brief coaching sessions with parents early in children’s lives can have long-term advantages, both for how teenagers digest and talk about stressful life events and for their well-being,” says Professor Reese.
“We believe that elaborative reminiscing by parents helps children build more comprehensive, detailed, and accurate recollections of their experiences, resulting in a richer bank of memories to employ when forming their identities in adolescence. Elaborative reminiscing also teaches children how to have open dialogues about their sentiments from the past when they are no longer in the heat of the moment.”
She hopes that parents and policymakers see the value of early childhood as the optimal time to begin having constructive dialogues with children, and that they understand that these conversations may make a difference as children grow older.
“The ultimate goal is to inspire parents to have more sensitive and responsive talks with their children about events in their life.” According to lead author and clinical psychologist Dr. Claire Mitchell, a large body of research now suggests that well-being can plummet substantially during adolescence.
“For some young people, this dip is the beginning of more severe mental health issues that can be difficult to treat. Thus, it is important to find ways to prevent mental health difficulties earlier in life if possible.
“As a parent of a toddler, I can attest that these elaborative recalling techniques are pleasurable and simple to master. Our research paves the path for future work with parents of young children to foster healthy interactions from the start, which could have long-term advantages “she claims. The researchers want to continue the study, following up with individuals in their early twenties to see whether there are any long-term impacts of their moms’ elaborative remembering.
