Investing in friends can balance out childhood adversity, study says

Investing in friends can balance out childhood adversity, study says


A friend in need is a friend indeed, and those of us with less-than-rosy childhoods may benefit from strong social bonds in ways that make up for adverse early childhood experiences.

A new study from Duke University looked at nearly 200 baboons in southern Kenya, finding that adversity experienced early in life negatively affected the primates’ lifespan. However, strong social bonds with other baboons forged in adulthood restored the years previously “lost.”

Specifically, baboons with difficult childhoods regained two years of life expectancy by forming close friendships.

Previous studies have found that people who experience traumatic events while growing up, like neglect or parental abuse, are more likely to have a shortened lifespan. Self-reported data from people has limitations, however, so researchers followed individual baboons, noting which animals they spent time with and how they progressed throughout their lifetimes.

They found baboons who experienced more adversity early on had a dip in survival. For nine out of 10, that was due to direct effects of their early negative experiences, like being born in a drought year or losing their mother. Each additional hardship was linked to 1.4 years of life lost.

But those who developed strong social bonds with other baboons added 2.2 years to their lives, regardless of any negative events they faced as young baboons. The closeness of these social bonds was measured by how often they groomed their pals.

So, though we can’t change our own histories, making a concerted effort to foster and maintain friendships is one way to live longer and ensure the extra time is well-spent.

 

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