Lessons from the longest study on human development

关于人类发展的一项长期研究给我们的启示

Helen Pearson at TED2017

Today I want confess something to you, but first of all I'm going to ask you a couple of question.How many people here have children? And how many of you are confident that you know how to bring up your children in exactly the right way?

今天，我要向你们坦白一些事情，但首先，我要问大家一些问题。在座的有多少人有孩子（举手）？那么，又有多少人知道如何正确的抚养孩子呢？

OK, I don't see too many hands going up on that second one, and that's my confession, too. I've got three boys; they're three, nine and 12. And like you, and like most parents, the honest truth is I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing. I want them to be happy and healthy in their lives, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do to make sure they are happy and healthy. There's so many books offering all kinds of conflicting advice, it can be really overwhelming. So I've spent most of their lives just making it up as I go along. However, something changed me a few years ago, when I came across a little secret that we have in Britain. It's helped me become more confident about how I bring up my own children, and it's revealed a lot about how we as a society can help all children. I want to share that secret with you today.

好吧，当我问第二个问题的时候，我没有看到多少人举手，这也是我今天需要坦白的事情。我有三个男孩，他们分别3岁，9岁和12岁。同你们一样，同大多数父母一样，坦白地说，关于抚养孩子，我不太清楚我在做什么。我想要在他们有生之年健康，快乐，但我不知道我现在所做的是否会让他们健康和快乐。有很多育儿的书提出各种相互冲突的建议，这些东西让人不知所错。所以，我在孩子们成长的大部分时间里面，总是在弥补我的过错。然而，几年前，我无意中发现英国的一项秘密研究，这些研究结果改变了我。这些研究成果使我知道如何抚养我们的孩子，同时也告诉我们，我们的社会如何保住我们的孩子健康成长。今天，我要分享这个秘密给大家。

For the last 70 years, scientists in Britain have been following thousands of children through their lives as a part of an incredible scientific study. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world. Collecting information on thousands of children is a really powerful thing to do, because it means we can compare the ones who say, do well at school or end up healthy or happy or wealthy as adults, and the ones who struggle much more, and then we can sift through all the information we've collected and try to work out why their lives turned out different.

在过去的70年里，作为这项难以置信的科学研究的一部分，科学家跟踪研究了数千个孩子生活。世界上任何其他地方都没有进行过类似的研究。收集这项信息是一项真正的强有力的工作，这意味着，我们可以将这些学习好，健康，快乐和富裕的人和在每个时期都面临更多挣扎的人进行比较，并筛选我们所收集的信息，试图发现为什么他们的人生会不同。

The British study -- it's actually a kind of crazy story. So it all starts back in 1946, just a few months after the end of the war, when scientists wanted to know what it was like for a woman to have a baby at the time. They carried out this huge survey of mothers and ended up recording the birth of nearly every baby born in England. Scotland and Wales in one week. That was nearly 14,000 babies. The questions they asked these women are very different than the ones we might ask today. They sound really old-fashioned now. They asked them things like, "During pregnancy, did you get your full extra ration of pint of milk a day?" "How much did you spend on smocks, corsets, nightdresses, knickers and brassieres?" And this is my favorite one:"Who looked after your husband while you were in bed with this baby?"

英国的这项研究是一件难以置信的事情，开始于1946年，二战结束后仅仅几个月，当时科学家试图研究当时女人有了孩子以后会怎样。科学家们一周内在英格兰，苏格兰及威尔士对妈妈们进行了大量的调查，并记录了将近14000个新生儿的信息。科学家们当时问的问题和现在我们可能问的问题差异非常大，这些问题在今天看来非常老土。诸如，孕期每天是否喝了足够的牛奶？分别穿多长时间罩衫，紧身衣，睡裙，紧身短裤，胸衣？我最喜欢的问题是：当你和婴儿躺在床上时，谁来照顾你的丈夫？

Now, this wartime study actually ended up being so successful that scientists did it again. They recorded the births of thousands of babies born in 1958 and thousands more in 1970. They did it again in the early 1990s, and again at the turn of the millennium. Altogether, more than 70,000 children have been involved in these studies across these five generations. They're called the British birth cohorts, and scientist have gone back and recorded more information on all of these people every few years ever since. The amount of information that's now been collected on these people is just completely mind-boggling. It includes thousands of paper questionnaires and terabytes' worth of computer data. Scientists have also built up a huge bank of tissue samples, which includes locks of hair, nail clippings, baby teeth and DNA. They've even collected 9.000 placentas from some of the births, which are now pickled in plastic buckets in secure storage warehouse. This whole project has become unique -- so, no other country in the world is tracking generations of children in quite this detail. These are some of the best-studied people on the planet, and the data has become incredibly valuable for scientists, generating well over 6,000 academic papers and books. But today I want to focus on just one finding -- perhaps the most important discovery to come from this remarkable study. And it's also the one that spoke to me personally, because it's about how to use science to do the best for our children.

战时这项研究圆满地结束了，科学家又进行了几次类似的研究。他们分别在1958年和1970年记录了数以千计的新生儿，并分别在二十世纪九十年代初以及世纪之交时也进行了同样的研究。总体上，这项研究跨越5代，囊括了超过70000儿童，他们被称为英国出生军团。从那时起，科学家每隔数年都要收集这些样本的信息。在这些人身上收集的信息达到了令人难以置信的数据量。它包括数千页的问卷调查和万亿字节的计算机数据。科学家同时建立了大量的组织样本，包括成绺的毛发，剪下的指甲，婴儿牙齿甚至DNA。科学家还收集了9000个新生儿的胎盘，并把它们浸泡在塑料盒子里面，存储在一个安全库房里面。这个工程是独一无二的，没有任何其他国家跟踪几代人，并记录如此详细的数据。从事这项研究的人员，很多成为了举世闻名的科学家，这些数据对于科学家的价值难以估量，产生了超过6000篇论文及著作。但是，今天我们关注的，可能是在这项卓越的研究中得出的重要发现。对我个人来讲也是最重要的，因为它告诉我们如何利用科学知识给我们的孩子带来益处。

So, let's get the bad news our of the way first. Perhaps the biggest message from this remarkable study is this: don't be born in poverty or into disadvantage, because if you are, you're far more likely to walk a difficult path in life. Many children in this study were born into poor families or into working-class families that had cramped homes or other problems, and it's clear now that those disadvantaged children have been more likely to struggle on almost every score. They've been more likely to do worse at school, to end up with worse jobs and to earn less money. Now, maybe that sounds really obvious, but some of the results have been really surprising, so children who had a tough start in life are also more likely to end up unhealthy as adults. They're more likely to be overweight, to have high blood pressure, and then decades down the line, more likely to have failing memory, poor health and even to die earlier.

让我们先看一下消极的一面。从这项卓越的研究中得到的最大信息就是：不要出身贫寒或处于不利地位，因为，如果这样，你将在一生中面临艰难的道路。在这项研究中，很多孩子出生在贫困家庭或出生在工人阶级家庭，这些家庭房屋狭小，或有这样那样的问题。非常明显，这些处于不利地位的孩子更大的可能在日后的几乎每一个事情上都面临挑战。在学校里，学习成绩可能更差，日后从事比较低端的工作，赚更少的钱。到此，结果看起来非常明显，但是，其中的一些研究结果也非常令人吃惊，这些开始就比较艰难的孩子成年以后健康条件也越差。他们更容易超重，患高血压，随着年龄每况愈下，更容易穷困，不健康，甚至更早死亡。

Now, I talked about what happens later, but some of these differences emerge at a really shockingly early age. In one study, children who were growing up in poverty were almost a year behind the richer children on educational tests, and that was by the age of just three. These types of differences have been found again and again across the generations. It means that our early circumstances have a profound influence on the way that the rest of our lives play out. And working out why that is one of the most difficult questions that we face today.

现在，让我们看一下后来会发生什么，差异在早期就惊人地出现。一项研究表明，在教育考试中，出身贫寒的孩子在成长过程中明显落后富裕家庭的孩子一年时间，可是这时他们才三岁。这些典型的差距隔代中一次遇一次的出现。这意味着我们早期的生活环境在我们的一生当中影响相当深远。如何弄清楚这种情况为何出现，是我们现今面临的最困难的问题之一。

So there we have it. The first lesson for successful life, everyone, is this: choose your parents very carefully.

结论来了，各位，成功的第一课就是仔细挑选父母。

Don't be born into a poor family or into a struggling family. Now, I'm sure you can see the small problem here. We can't choose our parents or how much they earn, but this British study has also struck a real note of optimism by showing that not everyone who has a disadvantaged start ends up in difficult circumstances. As you know, many people have a tough start in life, but they end up doing very well on some measure nevertheless, and this study starts to explain how.

不要出生在贫穷的家庭，也不要出生在奋斗中的家庭。现在，相信大家已经看出了一些小问题。我们不能选择我们的父母，不能决定他们赚多少钱，但这项英国的研究也得出一项积极的结果，并不是每个有艰难开端的人都会陷入窘境。大家都知道，很多人生活早期非常艰难，然而他们最后做的也非常好。研究结果也解释了这种情况。

So the second lesson is this: parents really matter. In this study, children who had engaged, interested parents, ones who had ambition for their future, were more likely to escape from a difficult start. It seems that parents and what they do are really, really important, especially in the first few years of life.

第二个结论：父母真的很重要。在这项研究中，那些有完整家庭，关心他们的父母的孩子以及对未来有抱负的孩子，更容易摆脱艰难的开端。父母以及父母所做的一切看来非常重要，尤其在孩子成长的最初几年。

Let me give you an example of that. In one study, scientists looked at about 17,000 children who were born in 1970. They sifted all the mountains of data that they had collected to try to work out what allowed the children who'd had a difficult start in life to go on and do well at school nevertheless. In other words, which ones beat the odds. The data showed that what mattered more than anything else was parents. Having engaged, interested parents in those first few years of life was strongly linked to children going on to do well at school later on. In fact, quite small things that parents do are associated with good outcomes for children. Talking and listening to a child, responding to them warmly, teaching them their letters and numbers, talking them on trips and visits. Reading to children every day seems to be really important, too. So in one study, children whose parents were reading to them daily when they were five and then showing an interest in their education at the age of 10, were significantly less likely to be in poverty at the age of 30 than those whose parents weren't doing those things.

举例说明。在一项研究中，科学家研究了1970年出生的大约17000个儿童。他们筛选了堆积如山的数据，试图弄清楚是什么使这些开始比较艰难的孩子后来在学校学习很好。换句话说，有些东西使他们克服了困难。数据显示，最关键的因数就是父母。那些在孩子成长的前几年了，父母没有离异，一直关心他们的孩子日后更容易在学校表现良好。事实上，对孩子来讲，父母所做的努力和良好的收入关系不大。和孩子进行充分的交流和聆听，给孩子温馨的反馈，教孩子字母和数字，带孩子出去旅行或访客。每天给孩子读故事看来也非常重要。在一项研究中，孩子5岁时，每天父母给读故事的孩子，在10岁时，对学习表现出更多的兴趣，这样的孩子也比那些没有在早期给他们读故事的孩子更不容易在30岁左右陷入贫困的境地。

Now, there are huge challenges with interpreting this types of science. These studies show that certain things that parents do are correlated with good outcomes, or whether some other factor is getting in the way. For example, we have to take genes into account, and that's a whole other talk in itself.

如何诠释这种科学研究是非常大的挑战。这些研究表明，父母所能做的事情确实有些和收入有关，但同时很多其它因数也在发挥作用。比如，我们必须考虑基因问题，当然，这本身就是另一个课题。

But scientists working with this British study are working really hard to get at causes, and this is one study I particularly love. In this one, they looked at the bedtime routines of about 10,000 children born at the turn of the millennium. Were the children going to bed at regular times, or did they go to bed at different times during the week? The data showed that those children who were going to bed at different times were more likely to have behavioral problems, and then those that switched to having regular bedtimes often showed and improvement in behavior, and that was really crucial, because it suggested it was the bedtime routines that were really helping things get better for those kids.

科学家正在努力找到其中的原因，我对这项研究特别感兴趣。在这项研究中，科学家对出生在世纪之交的10000个孩子的就寝习惯进行了调查。那些在规律时间就寝的孩子和那些在不同时间就寝的孩子在以后的生活中有什么不同呢？研究表明，那些就寝时间不规律的孩子更容易产生行为问题，而那些就寝规律的孩子通常行为更好，这个研究结果也非常关键，因为这说明让孩子规律的就寝对孩子的成长真的很有帮助。

Here's another one to think about. In this one, scientists looked at children who were reading for pleasure. That means that they picked up a magazine, a picture book, a story book. The data showed that children who were reading for pleasure at the ages of five and 10 were likely to go on in school better, on average, on school tests later in their lives. And not just tests of reading, but tests of spelling and maths as well. This study tried to control for all the confounding factors, so it looked at children who were equally intelligent and from the same social-class background, so it seemed as if it was the reading which really helped those children go on and score better on those school tests later in their lives.

还有另一个问题需要考虑。科学家观察了那些快乐阅读的孩子。也就是这些孩子读了杂志，图画书，故事书。数据表明，通常，这些在5岁和10岁时喜欢阅读的孩子，在以后的学习中表现良好，考试成绩也更加优秀。不仅表现在阅读方面，拼写和数学也表现更好。这项研究试图考虑所有的混合因数，所以调查对象为智力和社会背景相同的孩子。所以，貌似阅读确认能够帮助孩子取得更好的成绩。

Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poverty or into disadvantage, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, helps children beat the odds and overcome some of those early disadvantages. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a child is born poor -- as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study shows that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at children growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right -- putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else -- that only got those children so far. Good parenting only reduced the educational gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the success and well-being of the next generation, then tackling child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

现在让我们回到开始，我说过这些研究的第一个成果就是不要出出身贫寒或处于不利地位，因为这些孩子可能在日后生活中会面临更多的困难。然后，我们又谈到了父母的影响，良好的父母培养可以保住孩子战胜困难，克服一些早期的不利因素。等等，这是否意味着贫穷根本无关紧要吗？你可以这么认为，当一个孩子出身贫寒，只要父母悉心培养，孩子以后能够表现优秀。我可不这么认为，这项研究揭示了两个因素：贫穷和父母的影响。其中一项研究结果确实也支持这个观点。然而，让我们看一下这些持续贫困的孩子在学校中表现如何。数据显示，即使父母作对了所有的事情——让孩子规律就寝，每天给孩子读书，仅仅对于这种情况的孩子，良好的培养知识缩小了他们和富裕环境的孩子的差距，大约减少了50%的差距。这意味着，贫困会给孩子留下永远的伤疤。同时也意味着，如果我们真的想确保下一代成功和幸福，努力摆脱贫困是一件非常重要的事情。

Now, what does all this mean for you and me? Are there lessons here we can take home and use? As a scientist and a journalist, I like to have some science to inform my parenting ... and I can tell you that when you're shouting at your kids to go to bed on time, it really helps to have the scientific literature on your side.

好吧，那么这些对于我们意味着什么呢？我们是否可以把这些成果带回家用呢？作为一个科学家和新闻工作者，我乐于将这些科学知识应用到我们的实际生活中，我可以告诉你们什么时候吼孩子上床睡觉，这确实能够我们更好的完成科学文献。

And wouldn't it be great to think that all we had to do to have happy, successful children was to talk to them, be interested in their future, put them to bed on time, and give them a book to read? Our job would be done.

如果要培养一个幸福，成功的孩子仅仅是和他们交流，让他们对自己的未来充满希望，让他们准时上床和扔给他们一本书，那岂不是太简单了。我们的工作也就结束了。

Now, as you can imagine, the answers aren't quite as simple as that. For one thing, this study looks at what happens to thousands and thousands of children an average, but that doesn't necessarily say what will help my child or your child or any individual child. In the end, each or our children is going to walk their own path, and that's partly defined by the genes they inherit and of course all the experiences they have through their lives, including their interactions with us, their parents.

和大家想象的一样，答案绝非那么简单。首先，这是对成千上万孩子的进行跟踪调查得出的一般研究成果，并不意味着适用于我的孩子，你的孩子，甚至任何单独的个体。最后，我们每个人的孩子都有自己不一样的人生道路，有些是基因决定的，有些取决于他们从生活中获得的经验，也包括同我们，他们的父母，互动中产生的影响。

I will tell you what I did after I learned all this. It's a bit embarrassing. I realized I was so busy working, and ironically, learning and writing about this incredible study of British children, that there were days when I hardly even spoke to my own British children. So at home, we introduced talking time, which is just 15 minutes at the end of the day when we talk and listen to the boys. I try better now to ask them what they did today, and to show that I value what they do at school. Of course, I make sure they always have a book to read. I tell them I'm ambitious for their future, and I think they can be happy and do great things. I don't know that any of that will make a difference, but I'm pretty confident it won't do them any harm, and it might even do them some good.

我可以和大家分享我获得这些知识以后是怎么做的。这些有些令人沮丧。我意识到，我工作太忙了，忙于开展和整理这些研究 ，每天几乎没有时间和我的孩子说话，非常讽刺吧。当我在家时，我通常在一天快结束的时候仅有15分钟和我的孩子交谈。我努力问他们今天做了些什么，以判断他们在学校表现如何。当然，我确信他们总是在阅读。我告诉他们，我对他们的未来充满信心，鼓励他们一定会幸福而且能做很多伟大的事情。我不确定这些是否会让他们不同，但我确信这些对他们没有坏处，甚至多少有些好处吧。

Ultimately, if we want happy children, all we can do is listen to the science, and of course, listen to our children themselves.

最后，如果我们想要自己的孩子幸福，我们能做的就是听科学的，当然，我们也要听孩子的。

Thank you.

谢谢！

视频链接：https://www.ted.com/talks/helen_pearson_lessons_from_the_longest_study_on_human_development/transcript#t-733704