A new study suggests that people whose mothers had several serious romantic partners tend to follow the same trajectory¹.

一项新的研究表明，一位母亲如果曾有若干个认真交往的伴侣，其子女也倾向于遵循同样的恋爱轨迹。

Some people have their mother's eyes. And some, it turns out, grow up to have their mother's romantic history.

有些人会有和母亲一样的眼光。并且事实证明，有些人长大后会和他们的母亲有着一样的浪漫史。

People whose mothers have been married multiple times or have lived with multiple romantic partners are more likely to do so themselves, according to a new study published in the journal PLoSOne.

发表在《公共科学图书馆》杂志上的一项新研究表明，一个人的母亲若有过多次婚姻或与多个爱人同居，他自己也更有可能这样做。

The longer people are exposed to their mother's cohabitation, the more sexual partners they tend to have.

人们接触到自己母亲与他人同居生活的时间越长，他们的性伴侣就越多。

The authors looked at data from surveys of thousands of Americans followed for 24 years. Data on the fathers' marriages wasn't available.

作者研究了24年来数千名美国人的数据，发现以上关联与父亲的婚姻史没有关系。

研究显示 母亲的伴侣数量决定了孩子的伴侣数量

The study authors write that, rather than economics or socialization, the most likely explanation was genetic². That is, some people have personality traits that make them better or worse at maintaining relationships.

该研究的作者写道，除了经济或社会因素，最能解释该问题的应该是遗传因素。也就是说，有些人的个性特征使他们可以更好地维系人际关系，反之亦然。

They might be depressed³, have trust issues, or not regulate their emotions well. They then pass those traits on to their children, who go on to have similarly short-lived relationships.

他们可能情绪低落，有信任问题，或者不能很好地控制自己的情绪。然后，他们把这些特征传给孩子，后者也会只有类似的短暂的恋爱关系。

"It could be that mothers who have more partners don't have great relationship skills, or don't deal with conflict well, or have mental-health problems, each of which can undermine relationships and lead to instability," Claire Kamp Dush, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of human sciences at Ohio State University, said in a statement.

该研究的主要作者、俄亥俄州立大学人文科学副教授克莱尔·坎普·杜什在一份声明中表示：“那些伴侣较多的母亲可能要么没有很好的恋爱技巧，要么不能很好地处理冲突，抑或有心理健康问题，而这每一个问题都会损坏人际关系，导致（他们感情生活的）不稳定。”

"Whatever the exact mechanisms⁴, they may pass these characteristics on to their children, making their children's relationships less stable."

“无论确切的原理是什么，这些母亲都可能将这些性格特征传给他们的孩子，使得他们的孩子的恋爱关系变得不稳定。”