Dr. Gabor Maté on psychology: what the evidence says · JRE #1869
SUBJECT: PSYCHOLOGY
The short answer
Maté claims a study tracked thousands of new mothers and their infants for 35 years and concluded that maternal love and attentiveness cannot be excessive, with the most-loved children becoming the most independent and successful adults. Maté does not name the study, but his description matches Maselko et al., "Mother's affection at 8 months predicts emotional distress in adulthood" (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2011), which he cites in The Myth of Normal.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
So there's a study that I quote in the book where they looked at thousands or several hundred women, new mothers, and how they related to their infants. And most of them related very well. Some were not that available, and some were extra doting and extra coddling, you might say, with their infants. They looked at the adults 35 years later. The people that were the most independent and successful and self-actualized were the ones that were super loved by their mothers, and the conclusion of the researchers was you can't love children too much.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Maté does not name the study, but his description matches Maselko et al., "Mother's affection at 8 months predicts emotional distress in adulthood" (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2011), which he cites in The Myth of Normal. The distinctive details line up: observers rated the affective quality of mother-infant interaction at 8 months on a scale running from "negative" to "extravagant", and the offspring were reassessed at a mean age of 34. The rating distribution matches his account almost exactly: 84.9 percent of mothers were rated "warm" (most related very well), 9.5 percent "negative" or "occasionally negative" (some not that available), and 5.7 percent "caressing" or "extravagant" (some extra doting and coddling). The high-affection group did report the lowest scores on every outcome subscale, so the direction of his point is supported. Three things are off. The sample was 482 people, so "several hundred" is right and "thousands" is not. The study measured only psychological distress on the Symptom Checklist-90 (somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, hostility); independence, success, and self-actualization were never measured, so the adult outcomes Maté describes are not the ones the researchers assessed. And the authors' stated conclusion is that "early nurturing and warmth have long-lasting positive effects on mental health well into adulthood", not that you cannot love children too much. The paper itself flags a single-item affection measure, observer subjectivity, constrained variation in the affection variable (the high-affection group was roughly 27 people), and possible common prior causes such as genetics. The study is real and directionally consistent with his claim, but the sample size, the outcomes, and the researchers' conclusion are all stated more strongly than the paper supports.