Stress is 'contagious' and can pass from mother to child: Study finds tone of voice, touch and smell can influence baby's mood

Experiment by University of California scientists tested 69 mothers

Found that mothers in stressful situations have a higher heartbeat

Babies pick up on their mothers' negative feelings within minutes

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Stress: The study found that children as young as one year old can pick up on negative emotions

As if being a mother wasn’t stressful enough. Scientists say that stress is contagious and can be passed from mother to child.

They showed that 12-month-old boys and girls not only pick up that their mother is under pressure, they also start to become anxious themselves.

The researchers said: ‘Before infants are verbal and able to express themselves fully, we can overlook how exquisitely attuned they are to the emotional tenor of their caregivers.

‘Your infant may not be able to tell you that you seem stressed or ask you what is wrong, but our work shows that, as soon as she is in your arms, she is picking up on the bodily responses accompanying your emotional state and immediately begins to feel in her own body your own negative emotion.’

The University of California, San Francisco, researchers asked 69 mothers to come into the lab with their babies, who were around a year old.

The babies were taken to a playroom, while their mothers made a five-minute speech and then took part in a question and answer session.

Some of the women received encouragement as they spoke, while others were faced with frowns and crossed arms. A third group made their speech to an empty room.

 

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The women were then reunited with their babies and the children’s heart rate measured.

The women whose speeches had received negative feedback felt more stressed – and their babies picked up on this, with their heart rates speeding up within minutes of sitting on their mother’s lap.

And the more pressured the woman felt, the greater the effect on the child, the journal Psychological Science reports.

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Mechanism: It is thought the babies may pick up on changes in tone of voice, touch or smell to work out their mother's emotions

Lead researcher Sara Waters said: ‘Our earliest lessons about how to manage stress and strong negative emotions in our day-to-day lives occur in the parent-child relationship.

‘Our research shows that infants "catch" and embody the physiological residue of their mothers’ stressful experiences.’

It is thought the infants may have reacted to a change in their mother’s voice, touch or facial expression. Even the smell of sweat might have an effect.

Such research may help shed light on how children are affected by their parent's health.

The researchers said: ‘A common question in public health circles is how stress and social environment “gets under the skin” to affect health both at an individual and at a familial level.

‘With this admittedly modest study, we show a possible mechanism for how stress is transmitted from parent to child.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2551145/Stress-contagious-pass-mother-child-Study-finds-tone-voice-touch-smell-influence-babys-mood.html#ixzz2sVMi9JcA 
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