Parents' stress may affect child health

Stressed, anxious or depressed parents could be making their children unhealthy, according to a study that followed the health of 120 children over three years.

Studies in the past have shown how stress can influence a person's own health, but there has been less research on how it can affect the health of others.

In the study Dr Mary Caserta and her team monitored 120 children aged between five and 10 and their parents over three years. Parents were asked to keep a weekly diary of the child's illnesses and to take a temperature measure when they got sick. Every six months the parents completed questionnaires that asked about their own psychiatric health as well as about stressful events and family conflict.

The researchers found a clear link between anxiety and depression among parents and an increased chance of the children being ill and having a high temperature.

The children of parents with more intense psychiatric symptoms also had a more active immune system, as measured by the level of "natural killer" cells and other immune components in their blood. This suggests their immune system was working harder. The research is reported in today's New Scientist magazine.

The research helped in "understanding the biological impact of multiple sources of chronic stress in families on specific immune functions in a sample of generally healthy children", the team wrote in the journal Brain Behaviour and Immunity.

The research did not find evidence for any impact on the health of children of individual events such as family separation, neighbourhood violence or family injury, or general family conflicts.

翻译:
Parents' stress may affect child health
父母的压力会影响子女健康

Stressed, anxious or depressed parents could be making their children unhealthy, according to a study that followed the health of 120 children over three years.
据将近三年对120名孩子的研究表明，父母的压力、焦虑和沮丧会影响子女的健康

Studies in the past have shown how stress can influence a person's own health, but there has been less research on how it can affect the health of others.
过去的研究已经表明压力如果影响一个人的健康，但是很少有关于一个人的压力如何影响他人的研究

In the study Dr Mary Caserta and her team monitored 120 children aged between five and 10 and their parents over three years. Parents were asked to keep a weekly diary of the child's illnesses and to take a temperature measure when they got sick. Every six months the parents completed questionnaires that asked about their own psychiatric health as well as about stressful events and family conflict.
在研究中，Dr Mary Caserta和他的研究组对120名5-10岁间的儿童和他们父母进行了长达三年监控。父母要求对子女的疾病每周都要做纪律，并且当子女生病时，需要记录下子女的体温状况。每半年，父母都要完成一个关于他们自己精神健康的调查问卷及有压力的事情和家庭的冲突

The researchers found a clear link between anxiety and depression among parents and an increased chance of the children being ill and having a high temperature.
研究表明父母的焦虑和沮丧容易导致子女生病和高烧

The children of parents with more intense psychiatric symptoms also had a more active immune system, as measured by the level of "natural killer" cells and other immune components in their blood. This suggests their immune system was working harder. The research is reported in today's New Scientist magazine.
通过对NK细胞和血液中的其他免疫成分测量发现，那些父母的精神强烈的孩子的免疫系统比较活跃。这说明子女的免疫系统很辛苦。今天的新科学杂志报道了此研究

The research helped in "understanding the biological impact of multiple sources of chronic stress in families on specific immune functions in a sample of generally healthy children", the team wrote in the journal Brain Behaviour and Immunity.
这项研究帮助人们理解家庭中慢性压力的复核源在生物学上如何影响一个健康孩子特定免疫功能的，该研究组在大脑和免疫的杂志上写道

The research did not find evidence for any impact on the health of children of individual events such as family separation, neighbourhood violence or family injury, or general family conflicts.
该项研究并没有找到离异、邻里不和、家庭伤害或者一般的家庭冲突等单个事件会对孩子健康产生影响