JOIN USSpeak to your father to strike the chord of happiness
Researchers at the University of York have found that children who regularly talk to their fathers are happier than those who do not — the findings are based on an analysis of the British Household Panel survey into 1,200 young people all aged between 11 and 15 years.
Young people who said they talked seriously to their dads “most days” gave themselves an 87 per cent score on a happiness scale compared with 79 per cent for those who said they hardly ever spoke to their fathers in this way.
Nearly half of young people — 46 per cent — said that they “hardly ever” spoke to their fathers about important topics compared with 28 per cent who hardly ever spoke to their mothers about the things that matter most. Only 13 per cent confided in their father “most days”.
The study, commissioned by Children’s Society, showed that young people talk less to their fathers about important issues as they get older. The analysis suggested there has been little change over the years with the same proportion of young people talking to their fathers about something that mattered to them more than once a week in 2007-08 as in 2002-03.
The charity said the findings were “highly significant” as academic research has shown that a child’s well-being later in life depends on their teenage relationship with their father as well as with their mother.
Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of Children’s Society, said: “This research shows that young people’s happiness is closely linked to how often they speak to their fathers about things that matter.”
Now, a feel-good formula
A British psychologist claims to have created a happiness formula to calculate the things which could make people feel good such as blooming flowers, holiday anticipation and fond memories of childhood summers.
45-year-old former Cardiff University lecturer Cliff Arnall has attached numbers to the factors and created a happiness formula — O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He.
When a value for being outdoors (O) is added to nature (N) multiplied by social interaction (S), added to childhood summer memories (Cpm) divided by temperature (T), and added to holiday excitement (He) then the third Friday in June comes out as the optimal day for peak happiness.
Dr Arnall, who runs happiness coaching clinics, said: “The third Friday in June came out with the highest rating due to peaking happiness factors.” Arnall said: “Society is becoming more materialistic, with people wanting to keep up with the Joneses. People shouldn’t be asking ‘How much do I earn?’ but ‘How happy am I?’ The best piece of advice I can give is work less and spend more time with people you love. That will make you happiest.”