當孩子長大離家時，西方國家父母是傷心還是開心

(CNN)Having children will make you happier than staying childless, according to a new study, but not until later in life, when they have flown the nest. A team of researchers at Heidelberg University in Germany found that parents tend to be happier than non-parents in old age, but this only holds if their kids have moved out. Previous research has suggested that parenthood, social networks and marital status affect the well-being and mental health of older people, and this latest study looks at the effects of family status.
（CNN）根據一項新的研究，有孩子會讓你比沒有孩子更快樂，不過也要等到他們長大離巢時，父母才變得更快樂。德國海德堡大學的一組研究人員發現，有小孩的父母往往沒有小孩的更幸福，但這個說法只有在孩子搬出後才成立。先前的研究說明，父母的身份，社交網絡和婚姻狀況等，會影響老年人的心理健康，而這項最新研究著重於家庭狀況的影響。

Scientists asked 55,000 people age 50 and over from 16 European countries about their mental well-being, and results suggest “the positive aspects of parenthood dominate when getting older."One of the biggest factors is that children become a form of social support, and the researchers point out that social support networks are associated with greater happiness and less loneliness and can act as a buffer against stressful events. “The results suggest that the finding of a negative link between children and well-being and mental health may not generalize to older people whose children have often left home already," the study says. “As stress associated with balancing the competing demands of childcare, work and personal life decreases, once people get older and their children leave (home), the importance of children as caregivers and social contacts might prevail."
科學家詢問了來自16個歐洲國家的55,000名50歲及以上的人的心理健康狀況，研究結果顯示，“父母年紀增長時，育兒的正面效果占上風”。最大的因素之一，是孩子們成為與社會連結的一種形式，研究人員指出，與社會支持連結可以產生更多的幸福感，也比較少感到孤獨，孩子們也可以充當壓力事件的緩衝。這項研究表示：“在已經離開家的孩子和他們的年老家人身上，比較看不到育兒和負面心理健康的連結。父母年紀增長，孩子離開家，育兒、工作和個人生活的競爭所帶來的壓力逐漸減少，孩子成為家庭照顧者和社會連結的重要性就可能佔上風。

However, children who still live at home are shown to have a negative effect on well-being. Christoph Becker, who formed part of the research team, told CNN that having a social network corresponds to greater life satisfaction, but that doesn’t have to come from children. Older people without children could get similar benefits from other close social connections with whom they can share issues and problems, he added.
但是，仍然住在家裡的孩子，對家庭幸福感還是有負面影響。負責研究小組一部分的克里斯托夫·貝克爾（Christoph Becker）告訴美國有線電視新聞網（CNN），擁有社交生活可以提高生活滿意度，但這並不一定來自孩子。他補充說，沒有孩子的老年人，也可以從其他親密的社會關係中，獲得類似的好處，他們可以與其他人分享或討論問題。

新聞來源：
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/19/health/parents-kids-happiness-study-scli-intl/index.html

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