New Study Finds Maternal Affection Between Ages 5 & 10 Sets Children Up For Success
Researchers believe these findings could support families at a policy level.
When it comes to psychological study, there are a lot of things we probably “know” instinctively, but it still helps to have hard data to back it up. For example, we probably can all guess “kids with warm and affectionate parents tend to do better later in life” but new research published by the American Psychological Association has recently given us some specific insight on this intuitive claim.
Researchers drew their data from a study of 2,220 identical twins in Britain, which allowed them to control for environmental and genetic factors. They were particularly interested to see how maternal feelings of warmth expressed between the ages of 5 and 10 affected success markers at age 18. They were particularly interested in this age cohort due to the lack of research on the subject beyond early childhood. The results were, perhaps not surprising, but they were encouraging.
During the study, researchers recorded twins’ mothers talking about each of their children during home studies. Trained observers listened to the recordings and rated them for “warmth and affection.”
More affectionate, warm mothers tended to have children with higher levels of openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness — three of the Big 5 personality traits, which also include extroversion and neuroticism/emotional stability. There was no particular correlation to introversion vs extroversion or emotional stability. According to the researchers, higher levels of openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness are closely tied with long-term success and well-being.
“Associations were small, but they survived stringent robustness checks, including controlling for reporting source, childhood maltreatment, child effects on parenting, and family support at age 18,” the study reads. “Our findings suggest that interventions to increase positive parenting in childhood have the potential to make a positive population-wide impact through small but sustained effects on personality traits.”
In an interview with Neuroscience News, lead author Jasmin Wertz of the University of Edinburgh highlighted how this research highlights that this research supports the individual and societal importance of supporting parents: happier parents raise more successful children, who become more successful adults and, in turn, a more successful society.
“There are many proven ways to support parents, such as policies that improve a family’s financial situation; access to treatment for parents who struggle with mental health problems such as depression; and parenting programs that help parents build stronger relationships with their children,” she said. “By targeting parenting practices that promote positive traits in childhood, it may be possible to reduce disparities in life outcomes associated with socioeconomic background, family dynamics and other environmental factors.”
Again, none of this is probably particularly surprising, but having hard data on hand can better inform personal and policy decisions to encourage better outcomes for all.
