Summary: How a mother interacts and shared memories with her toddler has an impact on their offsprings well-being in adulthood.

Source: University of Otago

How mothers share memories with their children during toddlerhood impacts mental health and well-being in early adulthood, a University of Otago study has shown.

Researchers found 21-year-olds told more coherent stories about turning points in their lives if their mothers were taught new conversational techniques two decades earlier.

These adults also reported fewer symptoms of depression and greater self-esteem compared to adults in the study whose mothers interacted with them as usual.

The study, published inJournal of Research in Personality, is a long-term follow-up of a reminiscing intervention in which 115 mothers of toddlers were assigned to either acontrol groupor taught to use elaborative reminiscing for a year.

Elaborative reminiscing involves open, enriched, and responsive conversations with children about shared experiences of everyday events. This is the first study to show long-term benefits of mother-child reminiscing for emerging adult development.

Lead author Sean Marshall, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology, says understanding ways to improve themental healthof 18- to 25-year-olds is important because of their unique stage of life.

Emergingadultsface a volley of challenges as they leave home and enter university or the workforce.

We wanted to understand how well tamariki cope with new challenges as they enter adulthood and find ways to ease thepsychological stressthat typically accompanies these transitions, he says.

Project lead Professor Elaine Reese, of the Department of Psychology, says the soft-touch intervention inearly childhoodproved to have enduring benefits for psychological well-being and mental health.

This study is the first of its kind and is informing new interventions at home and in schools with parents and teachers of young children, she says.

Author: Press OfficeSource: University of OtagoContact: Press Office University of OtagoImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Growing Memories: Benefits of an early childhood maternal reminiscing intervention for emerging adults turning point narratives and well-being by Sean Marshall et al. Journal of Research in Personality

Abstract

Growing Memories: Benefits of an early childhood maternal reminiscing intervention for emerging adults turning point narratives and well-being

The current study is an emerging adult follow-up of a longitudinal intervention study of maternal reminiscing (Growing Memories;N=115).

Mothers in the intervention condition were taught elaborative reminiscing skills when their children were 1.52.5years old. We tested long-term effects of the intervention for emerging adults turning-point narratives and well-being at age 21 (n=94; 82%).

Emerging adults in the intervention condition displayed greater causal coherence (connections between past and present self) in their turning-point narratives and reported higher self-esteem and fewer depression symptoms than those in the control condition, even after accounting forpersonality traitsand early childhood covariates.

These findings suggest that maternal reminiscing has a long-term impact on their offsprings narrative identity and well-being.

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Sharing Memories With Toddlers Helps Their Well-Being Into Adulthood - Neuroscience News