The joys of parenthood

　　身為人父的喜悅

　　Father s day

　　父親節

　　Having children really does make a man morecontent with life

　　有了自己的孩子的確會讓男人更熱愛自己的生活

　　WILL fatherhood make me happy?

　　當爸爸會讓我開心么?

　　That is a question many men have found themselves asking, and the scientific evidence isequivocal.

　　這是一個許多男人都會問自己的問題，然而科學家們對此的措辭卻含糊不清。

　　A lot of studies have linked parenthoodparticularly fatherhood.

　　許多研究項目將雙親的身份尤其是父親,

　　with lower levels of marital satisfaction and higher rates of depression than are foundamong non-parents.

　　和低滿足感與高壓抑感聯系起來，而且認為那些沒有為人父母的人們則要逍遙許多。

　　Biologically speaking, that looks odd.

　　從生物學的角度來說，以上的觀點其實很滑稽。

　　Natural selection might be expected to favour the progeny of menwho enjoy bringing them up.

　　因為從自然選擇的角度來說，大自然會更加青睞那些由開心的父親撫養大的孩子。

　　On the other hand, the countervailing pressure to have other children, by other women,may leave the man who is already encumbered by a set of offspring dissatisfied.

　　從另一個角度來看，男人天性受到一種相反的壓力，希望和其他女性生育更多的孩子，這種壓力可能會讓受到現有子女負累的父親感到不滿。

　　To investigate the matter further Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist at the University ofCalifornia, Riverside, decided both to study the existing literature, and to conduct someexperiments of her own.

　　一位來自加州大學的心理學家，索尼婭柳博米爾斯基，為了弄清這件事情，決定在研究現存文獻的同時，也親自組織一些實驗。

　　The results, just published in Psychological Science, suggest parenthood in general, andfatherhood in particular, really are blessings, even though the parent in question mightsometimes feel they are in disguise.

　　她研究的結果，《心理科學》上剛發表了不久。研究結果顯示，總體上來說，為人父母，的確是會受到祝福的，即便那些受訪的父母很多時候覺得可能自己在接受調查時偽裝了些東西。

　　Dr Lyubomirsky s first port of call was the World Values Survey.

　　首先，柳博米爾斯基博士從世界價值觀大調查開始著手。

　　This is a project which gathers huge amounts of data about the lives of people all around theplanet.

　　這是個浩大的工程，用來收集海量的居住在這個星球各個角落里的人的數據。

　　For the purposes of her research, Dr Lyubomirsky looked at the answers 6,906 Americanshad given, in four different years, to four particular questions.

　　柳博米爾斯基博士從這些數據中調出了6,906份來自美國的數據，用以進行她的研究。這些數據從四個不同的年份里收集獲得，涉及了四個方面不同的問題。

　　These were: how many children the responder had;

　　這四個方面是：受訪者有多少子女;

　　how satisfied he was with life;

　　他對自己的生活有多大程度的滿足感;

　　how happy he was;

　　他的快樂感多大;

　　and how often he thought about the meaning and purpose of life.

　　以及他多少次思考過生活的意義和目標。

　　She found that, regardless of the year the survey was conducted, parents had higherhappiness, satisfaction and meaning-of-life scores than non-parents.

　　結果她發現，剔除調查的年份因素之后，為人父母的人群比非父母人群具有更高的快樂感和滿足感，生活意義項的得分值也更高。

　　The differences were not huge,

　　這些數據的差別其實并不明顯，

　　but they were statistically significant.

　　但是從統計學的角度來看，其意義卻非常重大。

　　Moreover, a closer look showed that the differences in happiness and satisfaction were theresult of men s scores alone going up with parenthood.

　　另外，仔細查看這些數據會發現，男子在當了父親后，快樂感和滿足感會出現細小的差別，分數會越來越高。

　　Those of women did not change.

　　但是女性則沒有變化。

　　Armed with this result, Dr Lyubomirsky conducted her own experiment.

　　有了這個結果做支撐，柳博米爾斯基博士開始著手弄自己的實驗了。

　　The problem with projects like the World Values Survey is that,

　　不過諸如世界價值觀大調查此類的大工程的問題是，

　　because participants are asked to recall their feelings rather than stating what they areexperiencing in the here and now, this might lead them into thinking more fondly in hindsightabout their parenting duties than they actually felt at the time.

　　它在收集數據時，要求參與者是回憶自己的感受，而不是敘述他們當下的經歷，所以這就容易導致他們去深情地，美化地思考他們為人父母的責任，而不是他們當時真實的感受。

　　Dr Lyubomirsky therefore gave pagers to 329 North American volunteers aged between 18and 94, having first recorded, among other things, their sex, age, ethnicity, socioeconomicstatus, marital status and number of children.

　　為此，柳博米爾斯基博士給329名來自北美地區的志愿者發了調查問卷。這些志愿者從18歲到94歲不等。她第一手記錄下他們的性別，年齡，種族，社會經濟地位，婚姻狀態以及子女的數量。

　　She told them they would be paged at random, five times a day.

　　她告訴他們受訪者將會被隨機排列，一天五次受訪。

　　When they were so paged, they were asked to complete a brief response sheet about howthey felt, then and there.

　　當受訪者被隨機排列好后，將會被要求完成一份簡明的答卷，用來調查關于其當時的感受。

　　She did not, however, tell them why she was asking these questions.

　　當然，柳博米爾斯基博士并沒有告訴受訪者她為何問他們這些問題。

　　The upshot was the same as her findings from the World Values Survey.

　　結果，這次的結局和她在世界價值觀大調查項目里得出的結論是一致的。

　　Parents claimed more positive emotions and more meaning in their lives than non-parents,and a closer look revealed that it was fathers who most enjoyed these benefits.

　　相比那些還沒做父母的人，為人父母者在他們的人生中顯示出了更加積極的情感和更多對他們人生意義的積極思考。

　　Moreover, further analysis revealed that this enhanced enjoyment came from activitieswhich involved children rather than those that did not.

　　同時，通過更加仔細的觀察，顯示出父親在上述方面更加典型。另外，更進一步的分析表明了上述的那種積極和歡樂來自于有關孩子的活動。生活中不涉及孩子的日常活動則沒有這種效果。

　　It looks, then, as if evolution has bolted into men a psychological mechanism to keepthem in the family.

　　所以說，由此可見，似乎自然進化讓男人們產生了一種心理學機制，把他們閂在了家庭里。

　　At first sight, it is strange that women do not share this mechanism, but perhaps they do notneed to.

　　乍一看，似乎女性沒有這種機制很奇怪，但是仔細想想，她們也許根本就不需要這種機制。

　　They know, after all, that the children are theirs, whereas the best a man can do is hope thatis true.

　　她們至少知道，自己的孩子一定是自己生的。

　　That, and a man s potential to father an indefinite number of offspring if he can findwilling volunteers, might encourage him to stray from the bosom of his family.

　　但是孩子是不是男人自己的血脈，他們只能祈求上天了。所以說，一個男人想做一大堆子子孫孫的父親的潛在本能，會激勵他掙扎著走出家庭的懷抱。

　　Enjoying fatherhood, by contrast, will help keep him in the porch.

　　但是，相反的，身為人父的喜悅，則會讓他們在家里的門廊前停住腳步。

　　The joys of parenthood

　　身為人父的喜悅

　　Father s day

　　父親節

　　Having children really does make a man morecontent with life

　　有了自己的孩子的確會讓男人更熱愛自己的生活

　　WILL fatherhood make me happy?

　　當爸爸會讓我開心么?

　　That is a question many men have found themselves asking, and the scientific evidence isequivocal.

　　這是一個許多男人都會問自己的問題，然而科學家們對此的措辭卻含糊不清。

　　A lot of studies have linked parenthoodparticularly fatherhood.

　　許多研究項目將雙親的身份尤其是父親,

　　with lower levels of marital satisfaction and higher rates of depression than are foundamong non-parents.

　　和低滿足感與高壓抑感聯系起來，而且認為那些沒有為人父母的人們則要逍遙許多。

　　Biologically speaking, that looks odd.

　　從生物學的角度來說，以上的觀點其實很滑稽。

　　Natural selection might be expected to favour the progeny of menwho enjoy bringing them up.

　　因為從自然選擇的角度來說，大自然會更加青睞那些由開心的父親撫養大的孩子。

　　On the other hand, the countervailing pressure to have other children, by other women,may leave the man who is already encumbered by a set of offspring dissatisfied.

　　從另一個角度來看，男人天性受到一種相反的壓力，希望和其他女性生育更多的孩子，這種壓力可能會讓受到現有子女負累的父親感到不滿。

　　To investigate the matter further Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist at the University ofCalifornia, Riverside, decided both to study the existing literature, and to conduct someexperiments of her own.

　　一位來自加州大學的心理學家，索尼婭柳博米爾斯基，為了弄清這件事情，決定在研究現存文獻的同時，也親自組織一些實驗。

　　The results, just published in Psychological Science, suggest parenthood in general, andfatherhood in particular, really are blessings, even though the parent in question mightsometimes feel they are in disguise.

　　她研究的結果，《心理科學》上剛發表了不久。研究結果顯示，總體上來說，為人父母，的確是會受到祝福的，即便那些受訪的父母很多時候覺得可能自己在接受調查時偽裝了些東西。

　　Dr Lyubomirsky s first port of call was the World Values Survey.

　　首先，柳博米爾斯基博士從世界價值觀大調查開始著手。

　　This is a project which gathers huge amounts of data about the lives of people all around theplanet.

　　這是個浩大的工程，用來收集海量的居住在這個星球各個角落里的人的數據。

　　For the purposes of her research, Dr Lyubomirsky looked at the answers 6,906 Americanshad given, in four different years, to four particular questions.

　　柳博米爾斯基博士從這些數據中調出了6,906份來自美國的數據，用以進行她的研究。這些數據從四個不同的年份里收集獲得，涉及了四個方面不同的問題。

　　These were: how many children the responder had;

　　這四個方面是：受訪者有多少子女;

　　how satisfied he was with life;

　　他對自己的生活有多大程度的滿足感;

　　how happy he was;

　　他的快樂感多大;

　　and how often he thought about the meaning and purpose of life.

　　以及他多少次思考過生活的意義和目標。

　　She found that, regardless of the year the survey was conducted, parents had higherhappiness, satisfaction and meaning-of-life scores than non-parents.

　　結果她發現，剔除調查的年份因素之后，為人父母的人群比非父母人群具有更高的快樂感和滿足感，生活意義項的得分值也更高。

　　The differences were not huge,

　　這些數據的差別其實并不明顯，

　　but they were statistically significant.

　　但是從統計學的角度來看，其意義卻非常重大。

　　Moreover, a closer look showed that the differences in happiness and satisfaction were theresult of men s scores alone going up with parenthood.

　　另外，仔細查看這些數據會發現，男子在當了父親后，快樂感和滿足感會出現細小的差別，分數會越來越高。

　　Those of women did not change.

　　但是女性則沒有變化。

　　Armed with this result, Dr Lyubomirsky conducted her own experiment.

　　有了這個結果做支撐，柳博米爾斯基博士開始著手弄自己的實驗了。

　　The problem with projects like the World Values Survey is that,

　　不過諸如世界價值觀大調查此類的大工程的問題是，

　　because participants are asked to recall their feelings rather than stating what they areexperiencing in the here and now, this might lead them into thinking more fondly in hindsightabout their parenting duties than they actually felt at the time.

　　它在收集數據時，要求參與者是回憶自己的感受，而不是敘述他們當下的經歷，所以這就容易導致他們去深情地，美化地思考他們為人父母的責任，而不是他們當時真實的感受。

　　Dr Lyubomirsky therefore gave pagers to 329 North American volunteers aged between 18and 94, having first recorded, among other things, their sex, age, ethnicity, socioeconomicstatus, marital status and number of children.

　　為此，柳博米爾斯基博士給329名來自北美地區的志愿者發了調查問卷。這些志愿者從18歲到94歲不等。她第一手記錄下他們的性別，年齡，種族，社會經濟地位，婚姻狀態以及子女的數量。

　　She told them they would be paged at random, five times a day.

　　她告訴他們受訪者將會被隨機排列，一天五次受訪。

　　When they were so paged, they were asked to complete a brief response sheet about howthey felt, then and there.

　　當受訪者被隨機排列好后，將會被要求完成一份簡明的答卷，用來調查關于其當時的感受。

　　She did not, however, tell them why she was asking these questions.

　　當然，柳博米爾斯基博士并沒有告訴受訪者她為何問他們這些問題。

　　The upshot was the same as her findings from the World Values Survey.

　　結果，這次的結局和她在世界價值觀大調查項目里得出的結論是一致的。

　　Parents claimed more positive emotions and more meaning in their lives than non-parents,and a closer look revealed that it was fathers who most enjoyed these benefits.

　　相比那些還沒做父母的人，為人父母者在他們的人生中顯示出了更加積極的情感和更多對他們人生意義的積極思考。

　　Moreover, further analysis revealed that this enhanced enjoyment came from activitieswhich involved children rather than those that did not.

　　同時，通過更加仔細的觀察，顯示出父親在上述方面更加典型。另外，更進一步的分析表明了上述的那種積極和歡樂來自于有關孩子的活動。生活中不涉及孩子的日常活動則沒有這種效果。

　　It looks, then, as if evolution has bolted into men a psychological mechanism to keepthem in the family.

　　所以說，由此可見，似乎自然進化讓男人們產生了一種心理學機制，把他們閂在了家庭里。

　　At first sight, it is strange that women do not share this mechanism, but perhaps they do notneed to.

　　乍一看，似乎女性沒有這種機制很奇怪，但是仔細想想，她們也許根本就不需要這種機制。

　　They know, after all, that the children are theirs, whereas the best a man can do is hope thatis true.

　　她們至少知道，自己的孩子一定是自己生的。

　　That, and a man s potential to father an indefinite number of offspring if he can findwilling volunteers, might encourage him to stray from the bosom of his family.

　　但是孩子是不是男人自己的血脈，他們只能祈求上天了。所以說，一個男人想做一大堆子子孫孫的父親的潛在本能，會激勵他掙扎著走出家庭的懷抱。

　　Enjoying fatherhood, by contrast, will help keep him in the porch.

　　但是，相反的，身為人父的喜悅，則會讓他們在家里的門廊前停住腳步。