文章轉錄自Medical News Today（點此連結）；文章主要論述：童年時期的頻繁搬遷與成人期較低的生活品質有關（童年期約指0至12歲，成人期約指18歲以後），其中若個性是較為內向或神經質的人特別會受此影響。首先，這當然是一個相關研究並不代表因果關係（correlation does not imply causation），所以當然不能以偏概全地說童年時期有搬家經驗的人未來會有比較不好的生活品質和人際關係，以心理學觀點，重點不是搬家這件事，而是搬家、改變生活環境對兒童是一「壓力事件」（stressful life event），因此重複地經歷壓力事件若沒有合適的協助與應對，的確都會產生影響。以目前的心理學觀點（普遍、主流觀點），兒童需要一個安全穩定的成長環境與人際關係，搬遷、移民、離婚、轉學、因災難而安置等都是壓力事件，同時各種研究都指出，壓力事件本身不見得就會帶來負面影響，核心還是在兒童如何處理壓力事件、成人如何幫助兒童理解及度過事件本身。
Moving Repeatedly In Childhood Associated With Poorer Quality Of Life Years Later
04 Jun 2010
Moving to a new town or even a new neighborhood is stressful at any
age, but a new study shows that frequent relocations in childhood are
related to poorer well-being in adulthood, especially among people who
are more introverted or neurotic.
The researchers tested the relation between the number of childhood
moves and well-being in a sample of 7,108 American adults who were
followed for 10 years. The findings are reported in the June issue of
the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by
the American Psychological Association.
"We know that children who move frequently are more likely to perform
poorly in school and have more behavioral problems," said the study's
lead author, Shigehiro Oishi, PhD, of the University of Virginia.
"However, the long-term effects of moving on well-being in adulthood
have been overlooked by researchers."
The study's participants, who were between the ages of 20 and 75, were
contacted as part of a nationally representative random sample survey in
1994 and 1995 and were surveyed again 10 years later. They were asked
how many times they had moved as children, as well as about their
psychological well-being, personality type and social relationships.
The researchers found that the more times people moved as children, the
more likely they were to report lower life satisfaction and
psychological well-being at the time they were surveyed, even when
controlling for age, gender and education level. The research also
showed that those who moved frequently as children had fewer quality
social relationships as adults.
The researchers also looked to see if different personality types -
extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness
and neuroticism - affected frequent movers' well-being. Among
introverts, the more moves participants reported as children, the worse
off they were as adults. This was in direct contrast to the findings
among extraverts. "Moving a lot makes it difficult for people to
maintain long-term close relationships," said Oishi. "This might not be a
serious problem for outgoing people who can make friends quickly and
easily. Less outgoing people have a harder time making new friends."
The findings showed neurotic people who moved frequently reported less
life satisfaction and poorer psychological well-being than people who
did not move as much and people who were not neurotic. Neuroticism was
defined for this study as being moody, nervous and high strung. However,
the number and quality of neurotic people's relationships had no effect
on their well-being, no matter how often they had moved as children. In
the article, Oishi speculates this may be because neurotic people have
more negative reactions to stressful life events in general.
The researchers also looked at mortality rates among the participants
and found that people who moved often as children were more likely to
die before the second wave of the study. They controlled for age, gender
and race. "We can speculate that moving often creates more stress and
stress has been shown to have an ill effect on people's health," Oishi
said. "But we need more research on this link before we can conclude
that moving often in childhood can, in fact, be dangerous to your health
in the long-term."
Article: "Residential Mobility, Well-Being, and Mortality"
Shigehiro Oishi, PhD, University of Virginia; Ulrich Schimmack, PhD,
University of Toronto Mississauga;
Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, Vol. 98, No. 6.
Source: American Psychological Association
Copyright: Medical News Today
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