Most of us don’t remember our first two or three years of life. But our earliest experiences may stick with us for years and continue to influence us well into adulthood.
A study, published in Child Development, found that the type of emotional support that a child receives during the first three and a half years has an effect on education, social life and romantic relationships even 20 or 30 years later.
Babies raised in supportive and caring home environments tended to do better on tests later on, and they were more likely to get higher degrees as adults. They were also more likely to get along with their classmates and feel satisfied in their romantic relationships.
“It seems like, at least in these early years, the parents’ role is to communicate with the children and let them know, ‘I’m here for you when you’re upset, when you need me. And when you don’t need me, I’m your cheerleader,’” says Lee Raby, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Delaware who led the study.
Raby used data collected from 243 people who participated in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk. All the participants were followed from birth until they turned 32. “Researchers went into these kids’ home at times. Other times, they brought the children and their parents to the university and observed how they communicated with each other,” says Raby.
Of course, parental behavior in the early years is just one of many influences, and it’s not necessarily causing the benefits seen in the study. While summarizing the results, the researchers accounted for the participants’ social status and the environment in which they grew up.
Finally, they found that about 10 percent of someone’s academic achievement was connected with the quality of their home life at three. Later experiences, genetic factors and even luck explain the other 90 percent.
8. The text is especially helpful for those who care about ________.
A. individual experiences B. child development
C. human relations D. educational background
9. What can we learn about people who have had bad childhood experiences from the text?
A. They don’t remember their younger days at all when growing up.
B. They long for emotional support to do better at school.
C. They can’t recover from separating from their parents.
D. They are still affected by their earliest experiences even decades later.
10. Researchers collected data mainly by ______.
A. photographing the participants’ daily lives
B. communicating with the participants’ parents
C. observing the participants’ behavior
D. summarizing the participants’ position