As every parent knows when their little one is crying the experts say to leave the child be until they stop, well that aged old belief has since been disproven as leading psychologists say parents who activity nurture their bundle of joy whilst the are upset could have a significant impact on their child’s future.
According to the Professor of Psychology at Notre Dame Darcia Narvaez, parents who show more affectionate to their kids will see them grow up to be happier and healthier adults. Narvaez findings comes after she and her team questioned more than 600 adults about their childhood experiences, which focused on the amount of affectionate touch they received from their parents, along with free play and what family togetherness was like.
The study found that those who had more affection and positive childhood experiences grew up into adults with an overall better mental health. Prof. Narvaez told WSBT: “These things independently, but also added up together, predicted the adults’ mental health, so they were less depressed, less anxious, and their social capacities – they were more able to take other people’s perspective. They were better at getting along with others and being open-hearted.”
The extensive study also found that children who were not given enough affection whilst upset, grew into adults with decreased social and moral capacities. Pro Narvaez said she believes that parents should hold, rock and be responsive to their child’s needs on a regular basis as affects of loving attention will effect the way their brain is going to grow.
Narvaez further explained: “Lots of holding, touching and rocking – that is what babies expect. They grow better that way. And keep them calm, because all sorts of systems are establishing the way they are going to work. If you let them cry a lot, those systems are going to be easily triggered into stress. We can see that in adulthood – that people that are not cared for well, tend to be more stress reactive and they have a hard time self calming.”
Prof Narvaez also said she strongly disagrees with the belief that patients should not pick up a crying baby, saying: “Sometimes, we have parents that say, you are going to spoil the baby if you pick them up when they are feeling distressed. No, you can’t spoil a baby. You are actually ruining the baby if you don’t pick them up. You are ruining their development.”