Studies have shown that memories of good parental relationships can be good for people. William Chopik is an expert from Michigan State University. He together with some other experts did a study and they published an article in Health Psychology recently. According to the study, people who have good childhood memories of their parental relationships have better health and less sadness.
Chopik and his team carefully studied the results of two surveys. The first was the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, which studied adults in their forties for 18 years. The second, the Health and Retirement Study, general health, and what they think about their lives.
The experts found that those who thought they got much love from their parents in early childhood had better physical health and were more satisfied with their present lives. The experts also found that happy memories about mothers could have a bigger influence on children than that about fathers. The reason for this may be that most children were mainly raised by mothers.
The experts said the question needs to be studied further. In order to better understand the relationship between people's memories about parents and their present lives, greater numbers of people will be studied for longer periods of time.
