A parasite called Toxoplasma gondii is thought to be responsible for the increase in risk of mental illness.
Children brought up like this tend to be happier as adults.
Children brought up like this tend to be happier as adults.
People who were out in nature more as children have better mental health as adults, research finds.
Playing in the backyard, hiking and just being in nature as a child are all linked to lower depression and anxiety later on.
Growing up experiencing the natural environment helps people understand its benefit.
Those not exposed to nature as children are less likely to appreciate its benefits as an adult, the study also found.
Being in nature has been linked to both better mental and physical health.
Unfortunately, 73 percent of Europeans live in urban areas with little access to green spaces.
As populations worldwide continue to urbanise, the number of people who can easily get out into nature is likely to decrease.
The study included 3,585 people of all ages in four European cities.
All were asked how often they were out in nature as children, whether for purposeful activities like hiking or just playing in the backyard.
Those who had not enjoyed nature as children did not appear to understand its benefits, said Ms Myriam Preuss, the study’s first author:
“In general, participants with lower childhood exposure to nature gave a lower importance to natural environments.”
The main result showed that being in nature more as a child was linked to better mental health as an adult.
Dr Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, study co-author, said:
“Many children in Europe lead an indoors lifestyle, so it would be desirable to make natural outdoor environments available, attractive and safe for them to play in.
We make a call on policymakers to improve availability of natural spaces for children and green school yards,”
The study was published in the International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health (Preuss et al., 2019).
The more of these experiences students had suffered, the higher their levels of suicidal ideation, meaning they were thinking about ending their lives.
Perfectionism is a problematic personality trait that is on the rise.
The astounding power of the unconscious to store information we’ve consciously forgotten.
While there are many causes of childhood obesity that are outside parent’s control, this behaviour is one area they can address.
Both parents affect your personality, but rejection by one parent could be more critical for long-term development.
Optimism is a very attractive trait and is probably another reason that younger children are so charming in their happy naivety.
Childhood adversity experienced between ages 0-11 associated with a smaller cerebellum.
Self-esteem could be set at a surprisingly young age — so what influences it?
Self-esteem could be set at a surprisingly young age — so what influences it?
At the age of just five, children have developed a sense of self-esteem as strong as adults, a study finds.
Self-esteem tends to remain stable over the lifespan.
This suggests self-esteem could be set very early on.
Professor Andrew Meltzoff, one of the study’s authors, said:
“Some scientists consider preschoolers too young to have developed a positive or negative sense about themselves.
Our findings suggest that self-esteem, feeling good or bad about yourself, is fundamental.
It is a social mindset children bring to school with them, not something they develop in school.”
Until now it has been difficult to test the self-esteem of young children.
Dr Dario Cvencek, the study’s lead author, explained:
“Preschoolers can give verbal reports of what they’re good at as long as it is about a narrow, concrete skill, such as ‘I’m good at running’ or ‘I’m good with letters,’ but they have difficulties providing reliable verbal answers to questions about whether they are a good or bad person.”
Researchers used a newly developed test which examines implicit self-esteem.
In other words: it doesn’t directly ask children, rather it looks for associations.
For example, an adult test might look for links between the word “self” and the words “pleasant” or “unpleasant”.
The test was adapted for children that can’t read using the same principle.
Researchers examined the self-esteem of over 200 5-year-old children.
Dr Dario Cvencek, the study’s lead author, explained the results:
“Our work provides the earliest glimpse to date of how preschoolers sense their selves.
We found that as young as 5 years of age self-esteem is established strongly enough to be measured and we can measure it using sensitive techniques
Self-esteem appears to play a critical role in how children form various social identities.
Our findings underscore the importance of the first five years as a foundation for life.”
The question now, explained Professor Meltzoff, is what influences self-esteem at this young age:
“What aspects of parent-child interaction promote and nurture preschool self-esteem?
That’s the essential question.
We hope we can find out by studying even younger children.”
The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Cvencek et al., 2015).
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