Women with lots of children might be stressed but they are less likely to commit suicide, according to a Taiwanese study that found the more children a woman has, the lower her suicide risk. |
Women with lots of children might be stressed but they are less likely to commit suicide, according to a Taiwanese study that found the more children a woman has, the lower her suicide risk. A long-standing theory that historically lower suicide rates seen among married versus unmarried women reflects a "protective effect" of motherhood, rather than advantages of marriage per se. Researchers at Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan said this latest study supported that theory. The study looked at 30 years of data on 1.3 million Taiwanese mothers and found that women with two children were 39 percent less likely than those with one child to commit suicide. Researcher Dr. Chun-Yuh Yang said that the risk was 60 percent lower among women with three or more children. The study, reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, was based on birth and mortality records for Taiwanese women who had their first child between 1978 and 1987. Yang followed death rates for the study group through 2007. Suicide was uncommon regardless of the number of children the women had. Among women with one child, there were 11 suicides per 100,000 women per year. That rate was seven per 100,000 among women with two children, and just under six per 100,000 among mothers with three or more children. When Yang factored in a number of other variables -- including the women's age at first birth, marital status and education level -- the number of children a woman had remained linked to suicide risk. Yang said it was possible that women with a large brood of children benefit from greater emotional or material support when times are tough. Women who have several children also spend a larger share of their lives caring for young children compared with mothers who have one child. He said mothers who feel "needed" may be less vulnerable to suicide. However, Yang added that it was also likely that women who are already more vulnerable to suicide -- because of serious depression or other psychiatric illnesses -- tend to have fewer children. Although the current study included only Taiwanese women, Yang said the findings were likely relevant to other countries with studies conducted in Norway, Denmark and Finland finding a similar relationship between a woman's number of children and her risk of suicide. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
生養(yǎng)孩子多的女性可能會感到很累,但與此同時,這些女性自殺的可能性也較低。臺灣的一項(xiàng)最新研究發(fā)現(xiàn),女性生養(yǎng)的孩子越多,自殺風(fēng)險越低。 長期以來的理論表明,從歷史上看,已婚女性的自殺率低于未婚女性,這反映出“母親”這一身份的“保護(hù)性效應(yīng)”,而并非是婚姻本身。 臺灣高雄醫(yī)科大學(xué)的研究人員稱,這一最新研究為這一理論提供了支持。 該研究對三十年來臺灣130萬名母親的數(shù)據(jù)資料進(jìn)行了分析,發(fā)現(xiàn)有兩個孩子的女性比只有一個孩子的女性的自殺風(fēng)險低39%。 研究人員楊俊毓博士說,有三個或三個以上子女的女性的自殺可能性低60%。 這一研究在《加拿大醫(yī)學(xué)協(xié)會期刊》上發(fā)表,該研究基于1978年至1987年間臺灣生育第一個孩子的女性的生卒記錄。楊俊毓于2007年對研究對象的死亡率數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行了跟蹤調(diào)查。 研究發(fā)現(xiàn),無論女性生養(yǎng)幾個孩子,自殺現(xiàn)象并不普遍。 在育有一個孩子的女性中,每年每10萬人中有11人自殺;在育有兩個孩子的女性中,每10萬人中有7人自殺;而在有三個或三個以上孩子的女性中,這一數(shù)字不到6個。 楊俊毓還考慮了其他一些可變因素,包括女性生第一個孩子時的年齡、婚姻狀況和教育水平,結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)女性所生養(yǎng)孩子的數(shù)量仍然和自殺風(fēng)險有關(guān)。 楊俊毓說,這可能是因?yàn)楹⒆佣嗟呐栽诶щy的時日里能得到更多的情感或物質(zhì)支持。而且與只有一個孩子的女性相比,有多個孩子的女性要花更多的時間來照顧小孩。 他說,感到自己“被需要”的母親不容易出現(xiàn)自殺傾向。 但他說,也有可能是因?yàn)槟切┰揪陀凶詺A向的女性生養(yǎng)孩子較少,比如患有嚴(yán)重的抑郁癥或其他精神疾病的女性。 盡管目前的這項(xiàng)研究只涉及臺灣女性,但楊俊毓說這些發(fā)現(xiàn)與其他國家的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)存在關(guān)聯(lián)。在挪威、丹麥和芬蘭開展的研究也發(fā)現(xiàn),女性生養(yǎng)的孩子的數(shù)量和她們的自殺風(fēng)險之間存在類似的聯(lián)系。 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍) |
Vocabulary: per se: used meaning ‘by itself’ to show that you are referring to something on its own, rather than in connection with other things 本身;本質(zhì)上 factor in: 把……因素包括進(jìn)去 |