A new study, led by the University of Nottingham and conducted across three countries, has identified a set of key childhood experiences that predict multiple measures of well-being in adulthood – including health, happiness, anxiety, life satisfaction, satisfaction with social relationships, and general trust in others.
Published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, the identified childhood experiences included responsive care from parents or caregivers, ample opportunities for free play, and a positive emotional climate at home. All of these experiences form part of the 'evolved nest': a framework of parenting practices that human infants are theorised to have evolved to expect, and that have previously been identified as critical for healthy development.
Participants aged 18-34 from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, reported their experience of these practices during their childhood and then responded to several questions about their current well-being – many of which are routinely used by the Office for National Statistics to assess well-being within the UK.
We know that childhood experiences play a critical role in shaping well-being over the lifespan. Our study highlights the value of looking at how we collectively raise children from an evolutionary perspective, since the environments in which we evolved as a species are very different to those in which many people live today."
Working collaboratively with researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Osaka, the results revealed that in all three countries, childhood experience of evolved nest practices was associated with multiple measures of personal well-being, including health, life satisfaction, happiness, and (lower) anxiety. It was also consistently associated with people's satisfaction with their social relationships, their sense of belonging to their neighbourhood, and their level of trust in others.
Importantly, these associations were evident in spite of vast cultural differences across the three countries. They also remained statistically significant after controlling for demographic factors such as income and education.
Overall, our results highlight the importance of providing experiences that support the biological, psychological, and social needs of children. They also demonstrate the value of the evolved nest as a framework for thinking about those experiences."
The study, which was funded by the European Research Council, also found that people's reported childhood experiences could be grouped according to whether they were positive or negative. While much previous research has focused on the importance of avoiding negative experiences, results indicated that positive experiences were generally a stronger predictor of adult well-being than a lack of negative experiences.
