Positive perceptions of parental caring are associated with reduced psychiatric and somatic symptoms.

Objective: In a previous 35-year follow-up investigation to the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study, positive ratings of parental caring obtained in healthy male college students were found to be predictive of substantially reduced disease incidence (including cardiovascular disease, ulcers, and alcoholism) in mid-life. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between perceptions of parental caring, current psychiatric and somatic symptoms, and defensiveness, in a University of Arizona sample of females and males.

Method: The Harvard Parental Caring Scale (HPCS), the SCL90R, and the Marlowe-Crowne (MC) scale (a measure of defensiveness) were administered to 398 students at the University of Arizona.

Perceptions of parental caring predict health status in midlife: a 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study.

Objective: This study examined how the perception of parental caring, obtained from undergraduates, relates to subsequent health over the ensuing 35 years.

Methods: In the early 1950s, initial ratings of parental caring were obtained from a sample of healthy, Harvard undergraduate men who participated in the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study. In a 35 year prospective, follow-up investigation, detailed medical and psychological histories and medical records were obtained.

Feelings of parental caring predict health status in midlife: a 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study.

In the early 1950s, multiple-choice scores reflecting feelings of warmth and closeness with parents were obtained from a sample of healthy, undergraduate Harvard men who participated in the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study. Thirty-five years later, detailed medical and psychological histories and medical records were obtained. Ninety-one percent of participants who did not perceive themselves to have had a warm relationship with their mothers (assessed during college) had diagnosed diseases in midlife (including coronary artery disease, hypertension, duodenal ulcer, and alcoholism), as compared to 45% of participants who perceived themselves to have had a warm relationship with their mothers.