Apparently that “I want my mommy” feeling is actually based in a primal, emotional reaction to a mother’s voice. A new study has shown that little girls between the ages of 7 and 12 react with a measurable increase in oxycotin, a stress-relieving hormone. Interestingly, they experience the same increase in oxycotin from talking on the phone with their mother as they do from seeing their mother in person.
To test this reaction, researchers asked their subjects to give a speech and solve math problems in front of a panel of judges. They needed the girls freaked out, but didn’t want to do anything truly scary to get them that way so they turned to math. The subjects were then send into one of three rooms that each held a different method of comforting them.
Moms won over the movie, “March of the Penguins” handily. Researchers had expected that. What they hadn’t expected was that a phone call was just as good as a mom in person.
Of course, this might be a different ball game for adults who have more complicated relationships with their mothers – that’s why the study picked young girls who still know their mothers only as a source of comfort and love. Regardless, seems like a good reason to call your mom, doesn’t it? Or to call your kids when you know they’re going into a stressful situation. Cuz it’s scientifically proven now, a little mom time is the very best kind of medicine.
