囧研究：感情問題危害少女精神健康

A new study surprised researchers, finding that for adolescent girls, romantic relationship problems can have serious, negative implications for their mental health.
一項新的研究震驚了研究者。研究發現對青春期的少女來說，感情問題對她們的精神健康會產生嚴重的負面影響。

“I found that girls’ risk of severe depression, thoughts of suicide, and suicide attempt increase the more their relationships diverge from what they imagined,” said the study’s author Brian Soller, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico.
“我發現，戀愛關係越偏離女孩的想象，她們患嚴重抑鬱症的風險、自殺的想法和企圖就會增加。”該研究的作者、新墨西哥大學的社會學助理教授布瑞恩·索勒博士說道。

“Conversely, I found no evidence that romantic relationship inauthenticity —which captures the extent to which relationships unfold in ways that are inconsistent with how adolescents think or feel they should —contributes to poor mental health among boys.”
“相反，我發現即使戀情進展不盡如人意，戀愛關係也並不會影響男孩的精神健康。”

Soller used data from more than 5,300 high school students from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. From this data set he examined the mental health consequences of mismatches between adolescents’ ideal and actual relationships.
索勒使用了來自國家青少年健康縱向研究的5300多名中學生數據。從這個數據中，他檢測了現實戀情與理想戀情不一致對青少年的精神健康造成的影響。

The study appears in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
這項研究發表在《健康與社會行爲》雜誌上。

Soller measured relationship inauthenticity by comparing how adolescents described their ideal relationship in an initial interview with how their first relationship after the interview actually played out.
索勒通過把青少年在最初的採訪中描述的理想戀愛與採訪結束後的實際戀愛情況作對比，來測量戀愛關係與理想戀愛的不一致性。

“In the initial interview, researchers provided adolescents with a number of cards describing events that often occur within relationships, including everything from hand-holding and kissing to sex,” Soller said.
“在最初的測試中，研究者們給青少年提供了許多描述戀愛的卡片，這些事情從牽手、接吻到性愛，”索勒說。

Respondents kept cards describing events they would engage in within an ideal relationship, and then indicated the order in which the events would occur.
在測試中，測試者保留描述理想戀愛的卡片，並且給出事件發生的順序。

Roughly a year later, the respondents repeated the exercise, only this time they indicated which events took place within their relationship, and then provided the order in which the events transpired.
大約一年後，測試者重新進行測試，只是這次不同的是：她們要選擇那些在自己戀愛中真是發生的事情，然後提供事情發生的順序。

During both interviews, researchers asked participants about their mental health.
在兩次測試中，研究者都詢問了測試者她們的精神狀態。

As for why relationship inauthenticity increased the risk of mental health problems for girls, but not for boys, Soller said, “Romantic relationships are particularly important components of girls’ identities and are, therefore, strongly related to how they feel about themselves —good or bad.
爲什麼戀愛關係不如意會影響女孩的精神健康，而對男孩沒什麼影響呢？索勒說，“戀愛關係對女孩這一身份來說格外重要，所以戀愛也會影響到她們對自身的看法——要麼良好要麼糟糕。”

“As a result, relationships that diverge from what girls envision for themselves are especially damaging to their emotional well-being.”
“結果，如果戀愛關係不如意，就會對女孩的情感健康產生極大影響。”

On the other hand, Soller said relationships are not as important to boys’ identities.
然而，索勒說，戀愛關係對於男孩這一身份來說不是那麼重要。

“Boys may be more likely to build their identities around sports or other extracurricular activities, so this could be why they are not affected by relationship inauthenticity,” he said.
“男孩更容易在運動或其他課餘活動中找到自我認同感，所以這也說明了爲什麼他們對於戀愛不如意的反應不是那麼敏感。”

In terms of the study’s policy implications, Soller said parents, educators, and policymakers should think about how to help girls construct identities that are less closely tied to romantic involvement.
基於這一研究結果，索勒說家長、老師和決策人應該多想想如何幫助女孩脫離戀愛對自身的影響。

“Helping girls build their identities around things other than romantic relationships may mitigate the effects of relationship inauthenticity on their mental health,” he said.
“幫助女孩建立自我認同感，而不是僅僅依賴於戀愛關係，這樣就可以減緩戀愛不如意對她們精神健康的影響。”索勒說道。