Forget money: happy mums are better mums
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Mother and son: Mothers on similar incomes perform better as parents if they are happy in themselves
Money can’t buy you happiness but being ‘happy in yourself’ can make you a more successful mother, according to new research from Bristol University.
Scientists from Bristol and the University of Warwick found that while policy focussed on alleviating material poverty to improve a child’s well-being, not enough was done to raise ‘mental health poverty’ among parents.
They have called on the government to put an equal focus on the mental health of parents, as this could be of more benefit to children in the long run.
Dr Andrea Waylen, from the University of Bristol, said: “Poverty is obviously a key issue that already attracts a great deal of research and a raft of policy interventions — and rightly so. However, there is much less concern for parent’s mental health.
“Policies are needed to address both issues but our research suggests that the gain for children from policies to support parent’s mental health is likely to be of more benefit to children.”
The team used data from the Bristol-based Children of the 90s study, which surveyed more than 11,000 parents in the South West when their children were aged eight months. They were contacted again, shortly before their children’s third birthday,when information was collected from 9,687 parents.
Parenting was measured by mother’s report of enjoyment, confidence, pleasure, fulfilment with respect to caring for the child, dislike of the child’s crying and surrounding mess, and lack of time for herself.
The research is now published in the journal Child: care, health and development, which shows that happier parents will be more successful parents – regardless of income levels.
Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown from Warwick University said: “We know from other research that if you look at two families with the same levels of income the mum who is ‘happier in herself’ will be the more successful parent.
“What our study did was to follow up those same families again. Results showed that those mums who became ‘happier in themselves’ compared to their own rating from two years earlier were also caring for their toddlers in ways which are more beneficial for children’s wellbeing and development.
“What strengthens this finding is that we also found the converse; when mum’s reported that their wellbeing had declined their parenting had also taken a turn for the worse.
“When we looked at poverty we did not find that parents whose financial circumstances improved were parenting in a more beneficial way when their children were 33 months old.”
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