Nature Vs Nurture

A significant change in the past ten years is the global increase in reliance on the internet and the use of electronic devices. To begin the argument on whether nature is more pertinent than nurture in the social and emotional development of humans, an analogy to devices will be used. When purchasing a device such as a laptop or a smartphone, people pay attention to the specifications. So for example, one considers the external details of a device. There are details like the camera, the size, the weight and other factors such as touch screen capabilities. The internal capacity of the device is also considered, that is factors such as the memory, speed and processing capacity. These are all factors that cannot be changed once a device has been purchased. This can be likened to ‘nature’, it is what a human is born with, the genetic endowment with which a baby is born examples are hair and race. Once the device has been purchased, a person begins to download applications. One of the first recommended downloads is antivirus software, (this sometimes comes already installed in the device) then other applications like social applications (Whatsapp, Tinder and Twitter), financial applications (FNB and Metatrader) navigation applications (Google maps and Wais) and religious applications (Al-Quran and Bible) to name just a few that are downloaded. In this light, ‘nurture’ can therefore be defined as the factors that influence the development of a person from conception onwards. The experiences that shape the development of a person from conception and throughout life. In tech language, the downloaded applications are nurture. Research has shown that both nature and nurture impact social and emotional development, however, I believe nurture has a greater influence on the social and emotional development of infants.

Bronfenbrenner’s theory postulated that an individual is part of a system. He detailed that children are born into an environment that contains several systems, the first being a microsystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The principal place for human beings to experience nurturing is within the home, school, religious and other immediate environments. The interaction of the child within this system during the early years has a lifelong impact. If a child receives positive and nurturing experiences and if these are consistent, predictable and adequate, it will contribute to young children developing into mentally healthy adults. Prenatal and postnatal experiences have a lifelong impact on a persons learning, behaviour and both physical and mental health. (Shornkoff & Garner, 2012).

The formation of attachments is pivotal in the social and emotional development of infants and young children. Bowlby’s (1982) theory on attachment contributed significantly to the study of nurture through looking at how early interactions between infants and caregivers promoted survival and how these influenced later representations of caregivers as available and responsive (Rosenblum, Dayton & Muzik, 2009). A control trial conducted in Johannesburg, South Africa found that having an early-ultrasound (within the first 25 weeks of pregnancy) promoted parental-fetal attachment (Richter, Slemming, Norris, Stein, Poston, & Pasupathy, 2020). These prenatal experiences laid the foundation for postnatal parental-child interactions and subsequently promoted attachment and resulted in healthy infants developing (infants were assessed 6 months post-natally).

The most prominent influence in an infant’s early development is the primary caregiver or mother. A newborn will pay attention to the mother/caregiver. Infants are sensitive to and rely on the emotional responses of their mother and from the mother learn how to respond in various situations(Rosenblum, Dayton & Muzik, 2009). If a mother repeatedly looks frightened or is frightening, if she has multiple stressors and shows distress, a baby will be attuned to this. Adverse environments that are unsafe and those in which the caregiver or mother has repeated exposure to violence and abuse impact a child’s feelings of safety and security. This exposure leads to increased stress responses in the child that are characterised by fear and anxiety (Rosenblum et al, 2009). Early childhood adversity in the home can lead to long term challenges. Children who experience neglect and receive little atuned attention can be less able to make sense of another’s mental states . A baby may fail to thrive when the basic tenets of safety are missing from his/her experiences.

According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), the next level of a child’s ecological environment or nurturing experiences involves networks between single settings. For example, the ability to learn to read will be impacted more by the nature of connectedness between the home and the school rather than by the methods of teaching at the school. A parent who takes time and who is committed to supporting a child’s literacy endeavours through close communication with the school will be more likely to positively impact learning outcomes from a young age. This seemingly simple act of nurturing can go wrong when factors such as levels of parental education and adverse financial environments persist.

Poverty and harsh financial environments impact a child’s nurturing significantly. Prolonged experiences of hunger both prenatally and postnatally can impact the physical and mental development of a baby. A parent who has little access to finances may further have a preoccupied gaze when looking at and trying to meet the needs of an infant which reduces the quality of caring for the baby. This level of ecological environment according to Bronfenbrenner (1979) is one which the child has no access to but is impacted by because of the proximity or lack thereof that the mother/caregiver experiences to employment and financial provision.

Intergenerational health or trauma are factors that impact on how a child is nurtured. Childhood maltreatment of the caregiver, trauma and adverse experiences in the mother/caregiver often have long-term unconscious implications on how the parent nurtures. The persistence of certain behaviours that are either in contrast to or are a repetition of what happened to the caregiver are likely occurences. The vulnerabilities of the parents unremembered pasts may be re-enacted in their nurturing of their own children. This may set up a cycle of negative and adverse nurturing experiences across generations.

A hopeful factor with regards to nurture is that epigenetics studies have shown that nurturing experiences are so powerful as to impact on DNA (Shornkoff & Garner, 2012). Interventions that are carefully formulated can impact and change the trajectory of infants, particularly those that are exposed to early adversity and trauma.

Firstly, parents can participate in interventions aimed at increasing their responsiveness through being, “mind-minded” of their infants and being attuned to what their baby is thinking and feeling (Meins, Fernyhough, Wainwright, Clark-Carter, Das Gupta, Fradley, & Tuckey, 2003). If a parent acknowledges that a baby has it’s own mind and mental states then this fosters the development of skills such as empathy and understanding of others minds. In circumstances where maternal functioning is compromised, family systems can be harnessed to provide support for that mother/caregiver that is unable to provide sufficiently for a baby’s psychological needs. Through strengthening supportive systems, the harmful effects of toxic stress are mitigated (Shornkoff & Garner, 2012). Healthy, nurturing interactions with adults enhance the development of well regulated stress-response systems in the child. Another foundation for the healthy development of the child is a safe and toxin-free physical environment that promotes a baby’s curiosity and exploration of the environment.

Secondly, skilled primary healthcare workers (when trained and attentive to identify symptoms in at-risk infants) can refer to appropriate professionals for infants and their caregivers to receive interventions to support the growth and development of the infant. Child protection must highlight not only the physical protection but equally significant would be the emotional and social protection of children. Thirdly, public and private sector policies can strengthen the foundations of health. In some countries, government policies are tailored to focus on preventative interventions that focus on prenatal and early childhood experiences that threaten children’s wellbeing. “The structure of settings in a society can become markedly altered and produce corresponding changes in behaviour and development.” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

Human social and emotional development is impacted by a number of factors. Nurture looks at the factors that contribute to development after conception, in the early years of life and subsequently throughout one’s life. If during the early years a baby receives empathy, has an attuned mother/caregiver, is protected from neglect abuse and other adverse experiences and benefits from financial resources then they will be more likely to function optimally as a healthy and whole human regardless of their genetic inheritance. The device analogy shows that both the specifications and the applications impact on the optimal functioning of a device. Nature has its place in contributing to the social and emotional development of humans, and the interaction of both nature and nurture is likely to allow consideration of all the factors that contribute to healthy or unhealthy social and emotional development.

References

Bowlby J. (1982). Attachment and loss: retrospect and prospect. The American journal of orthopsychiatry, 52(4), 664–678. Link

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Wainwright, R., Clark-Carter, D., Das Gupta, M., Fradley, E., & Tuckey, M. (2003). Pathways to understanding mind: construct validity and predictive validity of maternal mind-mindedness. Child development, 74(4), 1194–1211. Link

Richter, L., Slemming, W., Norris, S. A., Stein, A., Poston, L., & Pasupathy, D. (2020). Health Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: testing the added benefits of pregnancy ultrasound scan for child development in a randomised control trial. Trials, 21(1), 25. Link

Rosenblum, KL., Dayton, CJ., Muzik M. (2009) Infant social and emotional development: Emerging competence in a relational context. Handbook of infant mental health (p. 80–103). The Guilford Press.

Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care, & Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), e232–e246. Link