How do we achieve a long and healthy life? Apparently, in addition to being lucky enough to live “well” into old age, along with eating well and taking care of our emotional and physical health, what our childhood was like is also important.
What if we told you that our health is also affected by our happiness when we were children? This is the main finding of a new study published by the American Psychological Society in the scientific journal Health Psychology. Participants who had good memories of their childhood and the relationship with their parents in particular tended to have better health, less chance of depression and a lower risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood.
Good childhood memories and health
«We know that memory plays a key role in how we make sense of the world: how we organize our past experiences and how we judge how we might act in the future. As a result, there are many different ways that past memories can guide us.said William J. Chopik, principal investigator. “We found that pleasant memories seem to have a positive effect on our health and well-being, most likely through the ways we reduce stress or help maintain healthy life choices.«.
The importance of childhood
Previous research has already outlined the positive relationship between memory and health in young adults, including the quality of work and personal relationships, reduced substance abuse and depression, and fewer health problems. But Chopik and his colleague Robin Edelstein at the University of Michigan wanted to study older adults.
Another limitation of previous studies was that they tended to focus on mothers, rarely considering the father’s role in child development. Chopik and Edelstein wanted to investigate the relationship with both parents. The participants were 22,000 and their age started from 40.
Participants who recalled higher levels of tenderness from their mothers during childhood experienced better physical health and fewer depressive symptoms later in life. Similarly, children who received more support from their father had fewer depressive symptoms.
The effect of memories does not fade
Also, older theories have argued that even pleasant memories fade over time, so older people are less affected by them. However, the researchers found that eventually, at older ages, pleasant memories predicted better physical and mental health.