有孩子會讓你更快樂——在他們搬出去的時候

有孩子會讓你更快樂——在他們搬出去的時候

Having children will make you happier than staying childless, according to a new study, but not until later in life, when they have flown the nest.

根據(jù)一項新的研究，有孩子會讓你比沒有孩子更快樂，但要到晚年，當他們飛出巢穴時才會這樣。

A team of researchers at Heidelberg University in Germany found that parents tend to be happier than non-parents in old age, but this only holds if their kids have moved out.

德國海德堡大學(xué)的一組研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，為人父母的人在年老時往往比沒有為人父母的人更幸福，但這只在他們的孩子搬出去的情況下才成立。

Previous research has suggested that parenthood, social networks and marital status affect the well-being and mental health of older people, and this latest study looks at the effects of family status.

之前的研究表明，父母、社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)和婚姻狀況會影響老年人的幸福感和心理健康，而這項最新研究著眼于家庭狀況的影響。

Scientists asked 55,000 people age 50 and over from 16 European countries about their mental well-being, and results suggest "the positive aspects of parenthood dominate when getting older."

科學(xué)家對來自16個歐洲國家的5.5萬名50歲及以上的人進行了調(diào)查，詢問他們的心理健康狀況。結(jié)果表明“隨著年齡增長，為人父母的積極方面占主導(dǎo)。”

One of the biggest factors is that children become a form of social support, and the researchers point out that social support networks are associated with greater happiness and less loneliness and can act as a buffer against stressful events.

其中一個最大的因素是，兒童成為社會支持的一種形式，研究人員指出，社會支持網(wǎng)與更大的幸福感和更少的孤獨感有關(guān)，有緩沖壓力的作用。

"As stress associated with balancing the competing demands of childcare, work and personal life decreases, once people get older and their children leave (home), the importance of children as caregivers and social contacts might prevail."

“隨著平衡育兒、工作和個人生活的相互競爭需求所帶來的壓力減少，一旦人們變老，他們的孩子離開(家)，兒童作為照顧者和社會聯(lián)系的重要性可能會占上風(fēng)。”

However, children who still live at home are shown to have a negative effect on well-being.

然而，仍然住在家里的孩子會對幸福感產(chǎn)生負面影響。

Christoph Becker, who formed part of the research team, told CNN that having a social network corresponds to greater life satisfaction, but that doesn't have to come from children.

克里斯托弗·貝克爾是該研究小組的成員之一，他告訴CNN，擁有一個社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)意味著更高的生活滿意度，但這并不一定來自孩子。

Older people without children could get similar benefits from other close social connections with whom they can share issues and problems, he added.

他補充說，沒有孩子的老年人也可以從其他親密的社會關(guān)系中得到類似的好處，他們可以與這些人分享問題。

Becker told CNN there are plans to track happiness for the same people over multiple years to study how well being evolves as people get older.

貝克爾在接受CNN采訪時表示，他們計劃對同一群人的幸福感進行多年追蹤，以研究他們隨著年齡的增長幸福感的變化。

"Literature has suggested that there might be U-shaped connection between age and happiness: people become less happy in middle age, but more happy in older age," said Becker.

貝克爾說:“有文獻表明，年齡和幸福感之間可能存在u型關(guān)系:人們在中年時不那么快樂，但在老年時更快樂。”

"We want to test if we find a similar relationship in our data, depending again on parenthood and social networks."

“我們想測試我們的數(shù)據(jù)中是否發(fā)現(xiàn)了類似的關(guān)系，這同樣取決于父母和社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

Another study, by the Open University in England, found childless couples were happier with their relationships and their partners than parents were, and were doing more work on their relationships than parenting couples.

英國開放大學(xué)的另一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，沒有孩子的夫妻比為人父母的人對他們的人際關(guān)系和伴侶更滿意，他們在處理人際關(guān)系方面比有孩子的夫妻做得更多。