The Virtual Kiss?

There is a very interesting study that was recently published from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. They used technology-a phone- to see if they could measure if a mother’s voice was as comforting to a child as physical hugs and kisses.

The participants of the study were girls, ages 7 to 12, they had to give a talk and then solve some math problems in front of a panel of judges, the researchers figured these were tasks, that would make any kid’s heart pound and blood pressure rise.

Before the girls gave their performances, the researchers measured the levels of two important and powerful hormones in all of the girls: oxytocin and cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that spikes during times of stress. Oxytocin is the bonding, or so-called “love,” hormone.

This was an important study because it has been assumed that there has to be physical contact for oxytocin to be released, this study showed that when researches had the girls talk to their mom’s on a phone to be reassured
by words, the girl’s hormones behaved in almost an identical way as girls that
were physically comforted by their mothers.

Of course, as parents, we all want to physically be with our children whenever we can. However, I appreciated reading this study because we sometimes need technology to help us stay connected with our children and help them through difficult times.

It is easy to only read the negative aspects of technology, cell phones and computers but we are lucky to live in the 21^st century where we can choose to use modern science to learn how to use technology in positive ways to help strengthen our modern families.

You can find more information like this from Dr. Hilary on familyinorbit.com