Research from recent years points out that by far the strongest influence on children is the quality of the parenting they receive. The research emphasises the crucial importance of supporting the family in their task of nurturing their children both before birth and in the first three years of life. The evidence comes from a wide range of research. Here are some areas (and there are many more):
- from health (how parents can promote good health in their children, or can sometimes contribute to poor health: getting kids immunised, and providing good food are examples)
- from neuroscience (how the brain develops before and after birth, and how the way parents interact with their babies can affect their brain development, setting a good or poor framework for the way children feel and learn for the rest of their lives)
- from developmental psychology (how parents can provide conditions in which children become well-adjusted, happy and fulfilled individuals, feeling either welcoming of experiences in the world, or threatened by them)
- from education (how parents can provide the foundations of learning - the experiences that children have before arriving at school, of language development, social interactions like turn-taking, emotional control like managing disappointment, curiosity about the world)
- from criminology (how from before birth parents can significantly contribute to a crime-free life for their children, because we know our prisons are populated by many people who have been neglected, abused, disadvantaged).
It is not only the family that is important. The community has a huge impact on supporting or making more difficult the task of parents, in areas like provision of preventive health and mental health services, family-friendly work practices that allow parents sufficient time with their children, community spaces and experiences that are welcoming of families and young children
The research has been given a new impetus by the increasing understanding of the critical role played by the quality of psychological, emotional and other environmental experiences on early brain development. The evidence reveals that these experiences establish a template that has the potential to play a significant role in responses to stress and hence the quality of health and well being throughout the life cycle.