研究告訴你應該花多少時間和孩子共處
If you worry you are not spending enough time with your children, you can relax. Get a babysitter and go out for the evening.
如果你還在擔心沒有足夠的時間陪孩子，那麼現在你大可放輕鬆。找個保姆，晚上你可以放心大膽地出門赴宴了。Studies show that it is quality, not quantity, of time that makes children thrive.
研究發現，讓孩子茁壯成長的不是父母陪伴孩子的時間，而是陪伴孩子的質量。While research has usually focused on mothers, a study last week on BMJ Open showed that the amount of time fathers spend with children is also less important than how much they enjoyed parenting.
通常大多數研究都會關注母親，不過上週《英國醫學雜誌》的一項研究表明，父親陪伴孩子的時間長短不是那麼重要，最重要的是父親是否享受陪伴孩子的過程。
Fathers who took pleasure in caring for their young children were 28% less likely to have children with behavioural problems at both nine and 11 years old.
據調查顯示，能夠以陪伴孩子爲樂的父親培養出來的孩子，在9歲和11歲出現行爲問題的機率要低28%。
Questionnaires were sent out to more than 10,000 parents in south-west England when their children were eight weeks and then eight months old.
研究人員將調查問卷分發給英格蘭西南部10000多對父母，問卷分別在他們的孩子8周大和8個月大時各發了一次。Fathers were asked how they felt about parenthood – for example, did they enjoy watching their baby develop, how much did they play with their child and how confident were they?
爸爸們被問到他們是如何看待親子關係的--例如，他們是否享受看着孩子長大的過程，他們多久陪孩子玩一次以及他們有多大信心？When their children were nine and then 11, the mothers were asked to score the children's behaviour – on factors such as how considerate they were to others' feelings and their kindness to younger children, as well as levels of restlessness and clinginess.
當孩子9歲和11歲時，媽媽們被要求給自己孩子的行爲打分--依據因素例如：孩子對他人感受的體貼程度如何，對其他小朋友是否善良，以及躁動和依賴程度。The researchers discovered that how secure the fathers felt about their role and their partner, and how emotionally connected they were with their children, were more important in reducing the likelihood of behavioural problems than the time they put in to childcare.
研究人員發現，父親對自身角色以及伴侶的安全感以及他們與孩子感情的親密程度，相較於他們花在育兒上的時間而言，在減少孩子出現行爲問題的可能性上扮演着更加重要的角色。The final analysis was done on nearly 6,500 11-year-olds and also took into account the father's level of education and income.
最終的分析是建立在近6500名11歲的兒童身上，並同時考慮了父親的教育和收入水平。Charles Opondo, of the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, was the lead author of the study. He says it shows that positive involvement means more than time spent on childcare duties.
牛津大學納菲爾德人口健康學院的查爾斯·歐潘多是這項研究的主要作者。他表示，該研究證明，積極的參與比花更多時間完成育兒責任更有意義。"Feeling good about being a dad, making an emotional connection with children and establishing a secure parenting relationship with mothers are perhaps even more important," he says.
他說道："爲身爲人父感到愉悅，與孩子建立情感聯繫，與孩子媽媽建立一個充滿安全感的父母關係，這些或許更爲重要。"The research suggests that parental guilt about how much time is spent with their children may be misplaced. It is the emotional connection that parents have with their children that counts.
該研究顯示，父母對於沒能花足夠的時間陪伴孩子而產生的內疚感其實是完全沒必要的。父母與孩子之間的情感聯繫纔是最重要的。For babies and toddlers, playing, reading and bathing can be high-quality activities.
對於嬰兒和蹣跚學步的孩子，陪他們玩耍、閱讀和洗澡算得上是高質量的陪伴。With older children, parents often recognise quality time when it happens – a simple chat in the car, for example.
而對於大一些的孩子，父母通常能夠意識到什麼樣的陪伴纔是高質量的--比方說在車裏的一次簡單的對話。No one says less time is better, but the research suggests that what matters most is making the time you do have really count.
沒有人說更少的時間效果更好，這項研究只是說明，更重要的是將時間花在更有價值的地方。
