Can you spoil a baby with too many hugs? No way, new research says.
A mother's cuddles and kisses offer long-lasting positive effects on her baby's mental health well into adulthood, the research finds.
Duke University behavioral scientists found that babies given lots of affection during infancy grow up to have lower levels of anxiety, hostility, and distress, and overall stronger mental health.
While psychologists have long noted that children deprived of physical affection as babies often grow up to have severe social interaction problems, few studies have tracked kids to adult life to assess the effects of affection.
For this study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers followed 482 Rhode Island participants of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project.
To assess the level of affection these babies received from their mothers, they were observed at the age of eight months during a routine developmental assessment.
A psychologist assessed how the mother coped with her child's tests. The amount of affection and feedback she gave her child was categorized, ranging from "negative" attention to "extravagant" attention.
Ten per cent of the mothers offered their children very low levels of affection, while 85 per cent offered a "normal" degree of warmth. Six per cent offered a very high amount of maternal affection.
The authors then followed up with the children decades later, at the average age of 34, and assessed their mental health and levels of anxiety and hostility.
Joanna (Asia) Maselko, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center who led the study, reports that babies whose mothers who were most affectionate at the 8-month assessment became adults who showed significantly lower levels of distress, anxiety and hostility.
The strongest association was with anxiety: the higher the mother's warmth, the lower the adult's anxiety.
Based on their findings, the authors say it's clear that lots of cuddles and kisses from mothers appears to lead to stronger bonding and feeling of security. This not only lowers distress, but may also enable a child to develop effective life skills and coping skills that they can use into adulthood.
"These findings suggest that early nurturing and warmth have long-lasting positive effects on mental health well into adulthood," the researchers conclude.
