That got your attention!

Lovely article here, very useful in those child advocacy statements I 
just sent out to a bunch of you. :-)

Morgan Gallagher

http://www.physorg.com/news204201579.html

*Ever meet a kindergartener who seemed naturally compassionate and cared 
about others' feelings? Who was cooperative and didn't demand his own 
way? Chances are, his parents held, carried and cuddled him a lot; he 
most likely was breastfed; he probably routinely slept with his parents; 
and he likely was encouraged to play outdoors with other children, 
according to new research findings from the University of Notre Dame.
*

**Three new studies led by Notre Dame Psychology Professor Darcia 
Narvaez show a relationship between child rearing practices common in 
foraging hunter-gatherer societies (how we humans have spent about 99 
percent of our history) and better mental health, greater empathy and 
conscience development, and higher intelligence in children.

“Our research shows that the roots of moral functioning form early in 
life, in infancy, and depend on the affective quality of family and 
community support,” says Narvaez, who specializes in the moral and 
character development of children.


The three studies include an observational study of the practices of 
parents of three-year-olds, a longitudinal study of how certain child 
rearing practices relate to child outcomes in a national child abuse 
prevention project, and a comparison study of parenting practices 
<http://www.physorg.com/tags/parenting+practices/> between mothers in 
the U.S. and China. The longitudinal study examined data from the 
research of another Notre Dame psychologist, John Borkowski, who 
specializes in the impact of child abuse and neglect on development.

The results of Narvaez’ three studies as well as those from researchers 
around the world will be presented at a conference at Notre Dame in 
October titled “Human Nature and Early Experience: Addressing the 
Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. <http://ccf.nd.edu/symposium/>”

“The way we raise our children today in this country is increasingly 
depriving them of the practices that lead to well being and a moral 
sense <http://www.physorg.com/tags/moral+sense/>,” she says.

Narvaez identifies six characteristics of child rearing that were common 
to our distant ancestors:

• Lots of positive touch - as in no spanking - but nearly constant 
carrying, cuddling and holding;
• Prompt response to baby’s fusses and cries. You can’t “spoil” a baby. 
This means meeting a child’s needs before they get upset and the brain 
is flooded with toxic chemicals. “Warm, responsive caregiving like this 
keeps the infant’s brain calm in the years it is forming its personality 
and response to the world,” Narvaez says.
• Breastfeeding, ideally 2 to 5 years. A child’s immune system isn’t 
fully formed until age 6 and breast milk provides its building blocks.
• Multiple adult caregivers - people beyond mom and dad who also love 
the child.
• Free play with multi-age playmates. Studies show that kids who don’t 
play enough are more likely to have ADHD and other mental health issues.
• Natural childbirth, which provides mothers with the hormone boosts 
that give the energy to care for a newborn.


The U.S. has been on a downward trajectory on all of these care 
characteristics, according to Narvaez. Instead of being held, infants 
spend much more time in carriers, car seats and strollers than they did 
in the past. Only about 15 percent of mothers are breastfeeding at all 
by 12 months, extended families are broken up, and free play allowed by 
parents has decreased dramatically since 1970.

“Ill advised practices and beliefs have become commonplace, such as the 
use of infant formula, the isolation of infants in their own rooms, or 
the belief that responding too quickly to a fussing baby will ‘spoil’ 
it,” Narvaez says.

Whether the corollary to these modern practices or the result of other 
forces, research shows the health and well being of American children is 
worse than it was 50 years ago: there’s an epidemic of anxiety and 
depression among the young; aggressive behavior and delinquency rates in 
young children are rising; and empathy, the backbone of compassionate, 
moral behavior, has been shown to be decreasing among college students.

“All of these issues are of concern to me as a researcher of moral 
development,” Narvaez says. “Kids who don’t get the emotional nurturing 
they need in early life tend to be more self-centered. They don’t have 
available the compassion-related emotions to the same degree as kids who 
were raised by warm, responsive families.”

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