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Good relationships with parents protects kids against disease

The findings are based on 15,700 12 to 17-year-olds in the U.S.

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Good relationships with parents can improve kids' health well into adulthood. (Vivek Kumar via Unsplash)

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Getting along with your parents during childhood and teen years protects against disease well into adulthood, according to new research.

Adolescents' positive perceptions of their mothers and fathers were linked with a wide range of benefits.

Corresponding author Dr. Carol Ford of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said: "Investments in improving parent-adolescent relationships may have substantial benefits for young adult population health."

The findings are based on 15,700 twelve to 17-year-olds in the U.S., tracked for 14 years.

Dr. Ford and colleagues took into account parental warmth, communication, time together, academic expectations and communication satisfaction.

Those with higher levels also reported much better general health - into their 20s and 30s.

They were also more optimistic about the future and had better love lives.

They also suffered less stress and depression and were less likely to smoke or get hooked on drink or drugs.

The odds of unintended pregnancy also dropped too.

Dr. Ford said it shows specific modifiable characteristics can improve outcomes for kids long after they have left home.

She explained: "Aligned with developmental science supporting the importance of quality of parenting relationships in child and adolescent health, we add to the literature suggesting links to health through the third decade of life."

This includes general health, mental health sexual health and substance use in young adulthood.

(Amy Lane via Pexels)

Dr. Ford said: "Adolescent perceptions of their relationships with their mothers and their fathers were similarly associated with young adult health outcomes, above and beyond associations with adolescent biological sex, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, and history of child maltreatment."

She added: "Patterns were consistent.

"Adolescents who reported warm, loving, close, caring relationships with their parents; spending more time with their parents; and high levels of satisfaction with their relationship and communication with parents reported having higher levels of general health, feelings of optimism, and quality of romantic relationships in young adulthood; they also reported lower levels of depressive symptoms, stress, nicotine dependence and symptoms of substance abuse."

Several previous studies have shown that having a strong family unit can help adolescents deal with stress and communicate personal problems

Dr. Ford and the team analyzed two waves of the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

She said: "Our primary goals were to create a clearer understanding of associations between parent-adolescent relationship characteristics and the health of adult populations and to inform future research."

The results suggest efforts to improve relationship quality could have benefits for many important young adult health behaviors and outcomes.

Return on investment would go beyond benefits for adolescent health, reaching far into young adult populations and across a wide range of health domains.

Building on existing and new research, it should be possible to identify and implement a portfolio of effective strategies to meet the needs of diverse parents and their adolescent children.

Added Dr. Ford: "Interventions focused specifically on influencing adolescents' perceptions of relationship warmth, satisfaction with relationships and communication, time spent together and inductive discipline should be prioritized.

"Although outreach is often to mothers, our findings suggest that interventions should include both mothers and fathers when feasible.

"Emerging research can inform such efforts, and more research is needed to explore innovative strategies, such as building peer support or mentoring father networks and mobile messaging interventions targeting fathers, to better engage fathers in adolescents' health."

The study is published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

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