雙語原稿 | 貧窮與原生家庭，對孩子一生的影響

雙語原稿 | 貧窮與原生家庭，對孩子一生的影響

海哥 瀋陽學區研判 今天

hello大家好，我是達達。在過去70年裡， 英國科學家跟蹤調查了成千上萬小孩子的一生 ，發現了令人沮喪的現狀：家庭出身的影響比我們想像得更大，如果你出身貧寒，就更有可能走上一條艱難的人生道路。而這個時候如果父母缺乏對孩子成長正確引導的技能，沒能給到足夠的關照和傾聽，會讓人生的成長更加雪上加霜。

演講者：Helen Pearson

演講題目：Lessons from the longest study on human development

中英文對照翻譯

Today I want to confess something to you, but first of all I&39;t see too many hands going up on that second one, and that&39;ve got three boys; they&39;m doing.

好的，我看第二個問題沒有多少人舉手，而這也是我要坦白的。我有三個兒子，他們分別是3歲、9歲和12歲。就像你，就像大多數父母一樣，老實說我真的不知道我在做什麼。

I want them to be happy and healthy in their lives, but I don&39;m supposed to do to make sure they are happy and healthy. There&39;ve spent most of their lives just making it up as I go along.

我希望他們生活得健康、快樂，但是我不知道我應該怎麼做才能確保他們健康快樂。市面上有很多提供各種互相矛盾的建議的書籍，真的是令人不知所措。所以大多數時間我都是邊摸索邊撫養他們的。

However, something changed me a few years ago, when I came across a little secret that we have in Britain. It&39;s revealed a lot about how we as a society can help all children. I want to share that secret with you today.

然而，幾年前的一些事改變了我，那時我無意間發現了我們英國的一個小秘密。它使我對於如何養育小孩有了更多的自信，它還揭露了作為一個社會整體，我們該如何幫助所有的小孩。今天我想跟你們分享這個秘密。

For the last 70 years, scientists in Britain have been following thousands of children through their lives as part of an incredible scientific study. There&39;ve collected and try to work out why their lives turned out different.

收集成千上萬的小孩子的信息真的是一件很厲害的事，因為這意味著我們可以將那些在學校表現好或者成年後變得健康、快樂或富有的小孩跟那些苦苦掙扎的小孩進行對比，然後從收集到的信息中進行篩選試著去找出為什麼他們的生活會變得大不相同。

This British study -- it&34;During pregnancy, did you get your full extra ration of a pint of milk a day?&34;How much did you spend on smocks, corsets, nightdresses, knickers and brassieres?&34;Who looked after your husband while you were in bed with this baby?&39;re called the British birth cohorts, and scientists have gone back and recorded more information on all of these people every few years ever since. The amount of information that&39; worth of computer data. Scientists have also built up a huge bank of tissue samples, which includes locks of hair, nail clippings, baby teeth and DNA. They&39;s also the one that spoke to me personally, because it&39;s get the bad news out of the way first. Perhaps the biggest message from this remarkable study is this: don&39;re far more likely to walk a difficult path in life.

首先我們來說一說壞消息。也許這個偉大研究發出的最大的消息就是：不要出生在貧窮落後的家庭，因為如果你出身不好，你就更有可能走上一條艱難的人生道路。

Many children in this study were born into poor families or into working-class families that had cramped homes or other problems, and it&39;ve been more likely to do worse at school, to end up with worse jobs and to earn less money.

這個研究中的許多小孩都出生在住在狹窄的房子裡，或者有其它各種問題的貧困家庭或工人階級家庭，現在很清楚的一點是這些處於劣勢的小孩更有可能在幾乎每個方面中掙扎。他們可能在學校表現得更糟糕，最終找一份更糟糕的工作並賺更少的錢。

Now, maybe that sounds really obvious, but some of the results have been really surprising, so children who had a tough start in life are also more likely to end up unhealthy as adults. They&39;t be born into a poor family or into a struggling family.

不要出生在一個貧困的家庭。

Now, I&39;t choose our parents or how much they earn, but this British study has also struck a real note of optimism by showing that not everyone who has a disadvantaged start ends up in difficult circumstances.

我敢肯定你們可以看出這裡的一個小問題，那就是我們不能選擇父母或者他們的收入水平，但這項英國的研究通過展現不是所有出身卑微的人最終都陷入困境因此帶來了希望。

As you know, many people have a tough start in life, but they end up doing very well on some measure nevertheless, and this study starts to explain how.

正如你所知道的，很多人出身貧苦然而最終在某些程度上來說過得也不錯，而這個研究將要解釋如何實現這個。

So the second lesson is this: parents really matter.

所以第二課是：父母真的很重要。

In this study, children who had engaged, interested parents, ones who had ambition for their future, were more likely to escape from a difficult start. It seems that parents and what they do are really, really important, especially in the first few years of life.

在這項研究中，那些擁有負責任的父母、得到關心的小孩會對未來有野心，並更可能從貧困的生活中逃離出來。看來父母以及他們的行為真的真的很重要，尤其是在孩子剛出生到幾歲大這段時間。

Let me give you an example of that. In one study, scientists looked at about 17,000 children who were born in 1970. They sifted all the mountains of data that they had collected to try to work out what allowed the children who&39;t doing those things.

因此在一個研究中，那些父母在孩子五歲時，每天為他們朗讀故事，然後在孩子十歲時關心他們的教育的小孩們，在30歲的時候變得貧窮的可能性明顯比那些父母沒有那樣去做的小孩要少得多。

Now, there are huge challenges with interpreting this type of science. These studies show that certain things that parents do are correlated with good outcomes for children, but we don&39;s a whole other talk in itself.

現在，在解釋這門科學上面臨很大的挑戰。這些研究表明，父母做的某些事情跟孩子以後能有一個好的結果是相關聯的，但是我們未必知道是這些行為導致了好的結果或者是否還有其它的因素在妨礙這種結果。例如，我們需要也考慮基因的影響，但這個它本身就值得另外一個演講。

But scientists working with this British study are working really hard to get at causes, and this is one study I particularly love. In this one, they looked at the bedtime routines of about 10,000 children born at the turn of the millennium.

進行這項英國研究的科學家很努力地在尋找原因，而這也是我個人特別喜愛的一個研究。在這個研究中，他們觀察了大約一萬個出生在千禧年的小孩的睡眠時間規律。

Were the children going to bed at regular times, or did they go to bed at different times during the week?

這些孩子是在固定的時間睡覺，還是在一星期中每天的睡眠時間都不一樣？

The data showed that those children who were going to bed at different times were more likely to have behavioral problems, and then those that switched to having regular bedtimes often showed an improvement in behavior, and that was really crucial, because it suggested it was the bedtime routines that were really helping things get better for those kids.

數據顯示，那些不按規定時間睡覺的小孩更有可能出現行為問題。然後那些不按時睡覺的小孩變成按時睡覺後，經常會在行為上有所改善，這真的很重要，因為它表明睡眠時間規律真的能夠幫助這些小孩表現更好。

Here&39;t matter after all?

但是後來我又說了父母很重要，好的養育方式，如果你覺得這就夠了，能幫助孩子打破命運的魔咒並且克服部分早期的劣勢。等一下, 這是否就意味著貧窮只是一件無關緊要的事？

You could argue it doesn&39;re going to do just fine. I don&39;s true. This study shows that poverty and parenting matter.

你可以說它無關緊要，如果一個小孩出身貧窮——只要他們的父母是稱職的，他們也會過得好。但是我不相信這種說法。研究表明貧窮和養育方式都對孩子影響很大。

And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at children growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right -- putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else -- that only got those children so far.

事實上有一個研究對此進行了量化對比，它觀察了那些在長期窮困的家庭長大的孩子以及他們在學校的表現。數據表明，即便他們的父母正確的做了每一件事——督促他們按時睡覺，每天給他們朗讀等等——也只能幫孩子到這樣。

Good parenting only reduced the educational gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the success and well-being of the next generation, then tackling child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

好的育兒方式也只能將富孩子和窮孩子之間的教育差距縮小一半。那意味著貧窮會留下一個持續的創傷，也意味著如果我們真的想要確保下一代能夠成功並且幸福，那麼消除兒童貧困就是一件非常重要的事情。

Now, what does all this mean for you and me? Are there lessons here we can all take home and use? As a scientist and a journalist, I like to have some science to inform my parenting ... and I can tell you that when you&39;t it be great to think that all we had to do to have happy, successful children was to talk to them, be interested in their future, put them to bed on time, and give them a book to read? Our job would be done.

如果我們只需要跟孩子交談、關心他們的未來，讓他們按時睡覺、給他們書去閱讀就能讓他們快樂、成功，這難道不是想想就讓人很高興的事嗎？我們的工作完成了。

Now, as you can imagine, the answers aren&39;t necessarily say what will help my child or your child or any individual child.

正如你能想像得到的，答案不止這麼簡單。首先，這項研究調查了成千上萬的普通小孩，但這未必就能幫助我的或你的小孩，或任何其他的小孩。

In the end, each of our children is going to walk their own path, and that&39;s a bit embarrassing. I realized I was so busy working, and ironically, learning and writing about this incredible study of British children, that there were days when I hardly even spoke to my own British children.

告訴你們，我在知道所有這些後所做的事。那真的是有點尷尬。我意識到我太忙於工作了，而諷刺的是，在學習和撰寫這個關於英國小孩的偉大研究時，有好多天我都難得跟我自己的英國小孩說話。

So at home, we introduced talking time, which is just 15 minutes at the end of the day when we talk and listen to the boys. I try better now to ask them what they did today, and to show that I value what they do at school. Of course, I make sure they always have a book to read.

所以我們在家裡引入了談話時間，也就是在每天睡覺前的15分鐘裡，我們會跟男孩子們交談。我比以前更關心他們今天做了什麼，並向他們表明我很重視他們在學校的表現。當然，我會確保他們隨時有一本可以閱讀的書。

I tell them I&39;t know that any of that will make a difference, but I&39;t do them any harm, and it might even do them some good.

我告訴他們，我對他們的未來充滿期望，我認為他們能快樂並做出了不起的事。我不知道我做的這些是否對他們有影響，但是我很相信至少不會對他們造成傷害，甚至可能對他們有一些幫助。

Ultimately, if we want happy children, all we can do is listen to the science, and of course, listen to our children themselves.

最後，如果我們想要孩子們快樂，我們所能做的就是聽信科學，當然，還有就是聆聽孩子們的聲音。

Thank you.

謝謝。