Kids close to moms have rocking love lives later
Parent-Child Bond In Early Adolescence Helps In Building Stronger Romantic Ties in Adulthood
How well teenagers get along with their mothers might play a major role in shaping their romantic relationships a decade later.
A new study shows that a close relationship with one's mother in early adolescence was associated with better-quality romantic relationships as young adults, Live science reported.
The findings highlight the importance of the parent-child bond for building relationships later in life, the researchers say "Parents' relationships with their children are extremely important and that's how we develop our ability to have successful relationships as adults, cessful relationships as adults, our parents are our models,"said study researcher Constance Gager, of Montclair State University in New Jersey. "So if kids are not feeling close with their parents then they're probably not going to model the positive aspects of that relationship when they reach adulthood."
However, the strength of the parent-child connection later in adolescence, after the age of 14, did not seem to influence the children's romantic relationships when they were older.This might be because late adolescence is too late to hve an impact, Gager said.
"Adolescents may be more fully formed by age 14 so that there's not as much effect of their parents' relationship on them," she told Live Science.
Ganger and her colleagues analyzed the results of a national survey invloving nearly 7,000 married couples in the United States. Between 1992 and 1994, the mothers, fathers and children, aged 10 through 17, were asked about their relationships with each other. About a decade later, between 2001 and 2004, the children, now aged 20 to 27, were surveyed about their relationships with people they were dating (but not living with).
The parents and children were asked to rate statements about the "warmth" and closeness of their relationships. The grown-up children had to answer questions regarding relationship satisfaction and how much conflict they were having with their dating partners.
Only the mother's description of the relationship with her child was able to predict how well those children got along with their serious boy friends / girlfriends later. Specifically, those children with warm and close relationships with their mothers and more satisfaction and less conflict with their significant others.
Although fathers have become more involved in the lives of their children in recent decades, the study suggests it might not quite be enough to have an effect on the children's adult romantic relationships, Gager said, She notes that women are still responsible for two-thirds of the household labor and childcare.
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