Health for generations

In terms of human history, adolesence is a relatively new concept. Though written about by authors in the ancient world, it really only emerged in common usage during the 20th century.

But just as we now know that early childhood education and health have a lasting and determinative impact on our overall life experiences, how we fare during our teenage years is also predictive of our lifetime wellbeing.

University of Melbourne researchers in the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Chidren’s Hospital and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute now believe wellbeing during adolescence has an impact even into the next generation, shaping responses to attachment and parenting behaviours.

Professor George Patton has been engaged in longitudinal studies of groups of adolescents from age 14 through to adulthood, and are now recruiting a second generation of children in this research.

In a world first, these studies are starting to show that in addition to adolescent health being a strong indicator on future adult health (in terms of the persistence of risks such as obesity, tobacco use, physical inactivity and emotional problems), our teenage health experiences and life choices are also related to our parenting practices, and successful health outcomes for infants.

“Our research team has followed a group of two thousand Victorians who we first assessed at the age of fourteen and have now followed for twenty years,” explains Professor Patton. 

“In that time they have finished school, completed further training or education, begun working, become husbands, wives and partners and many have become parents.

“This research is looking at how what happens in adolescence may affect later life experiences, in things such as likelihood of finding a good job, a life partner and the quality of that relationship.  One of the central aspects of the research is now how they fare as parents and how their children fare in the first years of life.”

Although it is early days yet, Professor Patton suggests we are now able to predict a lot about the health of mothers through pregnancy and in the post-natal period from what was happening prior to conception.

In particular, maternal mental health often has its precursors over 10-15 years prior to having a baby he says, meaning often back to the adolescent years. 

“We now see that most young mothers with post-partum depression have had similar episodes earlier in life.

“We’re also seeing that what happens in adolescence is also predictive of the quality of the relationship a mother has with her child as well as the early temperament of that child.  Men are important too as the early findings suggest that a man’s adjustment during adolescence is predictive of how his partner will fare in her post-natal health and the kind of relationship she forms with her child.”

Professor Patton says although much as been discovered there is still a lot to be done.

“We in Australia, along with many other countries, have a national agenda for early childhood. Giving a child the healthiest possible start to life is seen as a priority.

“These early findings suggest that if we are to really give a child the healthiest possible start we need to begin with investing in the physical and mental health and social adjustment of ‘parents-to-be’ during their adolescent and young adult years.”

Fortunately, he says there is growing momentum toward investing more in adolescents and their health and wellbeing.

Both Professor Patton and Centre Director Professor Susan Sawyer were in Washington DC in January, having been invited by USAID to participate in conversations about its first ever Youth Policy, and with the World Bank about the major investment they are making in the health and development of the largest generation of young people in human history.

The investments and those of UN organisations such as UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA are drawing on the leadership of the University of Melbourne in ground-breaking work such as the recent series on Adolescent Health in the prestigious medical journal Lancet.

www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-projects/2000stories/