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For Children, a Mother’s Voice Is as Comforting as a Hug

If you're ever apart from your children, a new study says just talking on the phone will help just as much as a hug.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on May 13 2010
child on phone

Creative Commons image by Foxtongue

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If you’re a parent who logs long hours on the job, you probably feel guilty for spending so much time away from your kids, especially when business trips force you to leave for days at a time. If your child slips and hurts his knee, you won’t be there to kiss it better.

But the results of a new study should offer some reassurance to working parents, especially moms: a mother’s voice alone can be just as comforting to an anxious child as physical contact.

In an experiment, researchers from University of Wisconsin - Madison asked a group of girls between the ages of 7 and 12 to solve math problems in front of a panel of judges—a stressful situation for anyone. Before the girls were set to give their presentations, the researchers measured their levels of two hormones: cortisol, which goes up during stressful periods, and oxytocin, the “love” hormone.

After they were finished, some of the girls got to meet up with their mothers right away. “The moms came in and hugged the girls and stroked their hair,” the study’s co-author, psychology professor Seth Pollak said. “They’d reassure their daughters with words like ‘I’m sure you did fine. You always perform so well.’”

Another group of the girls didn’t see their mothers, but received phone calls from them, in which their mothers reassured them and told them how well they’d done.

The final group had no contact with their mothers, but instead watched an adorable animal movie, March of the Penguins.

Finally, the girls’ hormone levels were measured again. As cute as the penguins were, they did nothing to ease the children’s anxiety—but surprisingly, both the physical contact and phone calls from their mothers had the same impact in easing the girls’ stress levels.

“What tickled me about this study was that it goes against all the literature suggesting that you need to have physical contact for oxytocin levels to rise,” said Pollak. “But all that research was based on rodents.”

So, no matter how old you are, if you’re feeling stressed about something in your life, a phone call to Mom might be just the key to help you feel better.

Filed under: General Interest, Health and Wellbeing,

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