People with sweet childhood memories, especially fond relationships with parents, tend to have less depression and fewer chronic illness as older adults, according to a research published on Monday in the journal Health Psychology.
据周一发表在《健康心理学》杂志上的一项研究表明，拥有甜美的童年记忆的人，尤其是与父母关系亲密的人，随着年龄的增长，往往会较少患抑郁症和慢性病。
"We found that good memories seem to have a positive effect on health and well-being, possibly through the ways that they reduce stress or help us maintain healthy choices in life," said the lead author of the study William J. Chopik from Michigan State University.
这项研究的主要作者、来自密歇根州立大学的威廉·J·乔比克表示，“我们发现，良好的记忆似乎对于机体健康和生活有着积极的影响，其或许是通过降低机体压力来帮助我们维持生活中健康的选择。”
The researchers used data from more than 22,000 participants in two studies. The first one followed adults in their mid-40s for 18 years and the second followed adults 50 and over for 6 years.
研究人员共对超过2.2万名参与者进行了两组研究。首先对40多岁的成年人进行了为期18年的跟踪调查，随后研究者对50岁以上的成年人进行了6年的跟踪调查。
The surveys included questions about perceptions of parental affection, overall health, chronic conditions and depressive symptoms.
调查包括参与者对父母的感情、整体健康状况、慢性病状况以及抑郁症的症状等。
Participants in both groups who reported remembering higher levels of affection from their mothers in early childhood experienced better physical health and fewer depressive symptoms later in life.
两组参与者都表示，在童年早期与母亲亲感情较好的参与者，在以后的生活中身体更健康，抑郁症状更少。
Those who reported memories with more support from their fathers also experienced fewer depressive symptoms, according to Chopik.
乔比克称，同时那些曾得到父亲更多支持的参与者，也很少会出现抑郁症的症状。
However, Chopik's team found that participants with positive childhood memories had fewer chronic conditions in the first study of 7,100 people, but not in the second study of 15,200, making the results less straightforward.
不过，乔比克的研究团队发现，在第一项对7100人进行的研究中，拥有积极童年记忆的参与者患慢性病的情况更少；而在第二项对15200人进行的研究中，效果就没有那么明显了。