Research: Stressed Out Parents Make Kids Sick
Posted on: Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 07:15 CDT
New research found that children who had anxious or depressed parents were more likely to get sick.“These findings are somewhat surprising to me but also exciting because they show us possible new avenues for improving children’s health,” said Dr. Mary Caserta, who led the study.
The University of Rochester study reported by New Scientist, also found links between stress and the immune system in children.
Dr. Mary Caserta and her colleagues asked the parents of 169 children aged between 5 and 10 to make records of their child's health over three years.
Caserta teamed up with Peter Wyman, associate professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, who designed surveys aimed at evaluating levels of stress in the parents. After six months, the parents were asked to take the test to measure their amount of anxiety and depression . What they found was that the children who were sick more often were those of parents with the highest levels of stress.
By measuring the children’s immune cells, they saw an increase in those whose parents had raised levels of stress.
“It may have something to do with the fact that children’s immune systems are still developing,” Caserta said. “Or maybe they’re compensating for a defect someplace else. More research is needed to figure out why.”
Although the team admitted that putting measurement responsibilities in the parents’ hands could have caused the results to differ, they still claim a strong correlation between stress of the parent and sickness of the child.
“I figured families under stress might think their children were sick more often when they actually weren’t, but fevers are not subjective. These kids living with chronic stress in their families really were sick more often,” said Caserta.
"The 64,000 dollar question is, once this stress is alleviated, do the children's immune systems return to normal, or are they scarred for life?” said Dr. David Jessop, a researcher in stress and health at Bristol University.
"I believe that children are highly resilient, and their systems are sufficiently robust to cope with this.
"Although it is a good study, parents should not let it worry them unduly."
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On the Net:
University of Rochester Press Release - "Children Under Stress Develop More Fevers"
Journal BRAIN, BEHAVIOR, AND IMMUNITY
Bristol University
Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports
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