childhood and adult

According to Viana, Ebesutani, Young, Tull, and Gratz (2012), anxiety disorders are the most common in the general population in the United States. The author hypothesizes that childhood exposure to parental threatening plays a substantial effect in the prevalence of anxiety disorders in young adulthood. The study had 892 respondents who were undergraduate psychology students. According to the studies, there is a direct association between parental threatening and anxiety disorder in 95% of the respondents.

According to earlier research, childhood exposure to hazardous substances has far-reaching consequences for their relationship as young adults.  The effects do not only cause aggravated anxiety symptoms but also leads to cognitive judgmental biases which affect a whole range of factors. However, there is no clear understanding on how the exposure to threatening parents cause anxiety and judgmental biases late in life among the affected young adults.

The article has an in-depth analysis of the effects of hostile parents to a child emotional well-being as adults. It is evident that there is a strong relationship between anxiety symptoms and judgment biases among young adults exposed to threatening parents during their early ages. The findings are in line with previous studies that assert the results. Also, the authors argue that the parent-child relationship is the first relationship to be learned, hence can lead to the development of certain model at the back of the child’s mind on how they relate to other people depending on how the child learned his or her relationship with the parents. Lastly, victimization of children may lead to overestimation and hyper vigilance which will also affect the manifestation of anxiety symptoms.

While focusing on the family structure and the behavior if children as young adults (Bandy & Ottoni-Wilhelm, 2012) established that poverty levels and the hostile relationship between parents affect the prosocial behaviors of the children as young adults. The family structure as well affects the behavior of a child since most of the time, the shaping of a child character is an effort of both parents. In cases where one parent is not there due to either death or divorce, the Childs prosocial behaviors are affected to some extent.

The study involved 1121 people within the ages of 25 to 33 years. Among the respondents, there were 572 women and 439 men. Various parameters were used to study the population that included, their family structure, the income, and activities involved in the family during their childhood which was compared to their practice as adults. It was evident that early childhood poverty and family structure affects the children’s relationships in the society.

Most of the interpersonal relationship are learned from parents since this are the first people with which a child interacts. Therefore, caring and giving back to the society is cultivated at this time. As the authors point out, children in poverty stricken homes or those with a hostile relationship between the partners don’t get to learn the proper social habits. To begin with, the children learn the model of hostility instead of being caring since that is what they experience from their parents. Secondly, the children do not get a chance to learn and practice prosocial behavior. This is because learning a prosocial behavior is a process that includes parents acting as role models, encouraging their children verbally, reinforcing a good behavior and providing opportunities to the children to help people. In cases of broken families or those ta the verge of breaking, children do not get a chance to learn this attributes.

In the article by Del Giudice, (2015), the author seeks to understand the effects of attachment in the middle childhood on their development to adolescents and later on as young adults. The author discusses the developmental milestone of children at this age paying attention to the development of relationships, social learning, social integration and development of sexually differentiated features.

The author observes that the middle childhood is one of the crucial stages of a child in a relationship with their social responsibility. To begin with, this is the phase of transformation and change. The child moves from the toddler stage where he or she id depended on the parent to the middle childhood where they no longer depend on their parents to carry out arioso activities of daily living. Besides, they start to make relationships with their peers in opposition to their previous stage where they only knew their parents and caregivers.

At this juncture again, the children can help with various household chores like looking for food, taking care of animals and younger siblings in the family. Due to the continuous brain development and the production of androgens, the child can differentiate the various gender roles as they are stipulated by the community. Girls will engage in roles that are ascribed to the female and men are also more engaged in roles ascribed to the people. Therefore an upset to the proper development of the child during this crucial transformation stage is likely to affect the child psychological well-being as an adult.

According to Suisman, et.al, (2014), mean-level ideal internalization is high during puberty and adolescent development. However, it is not evident that these changes are in line with the developmental variations in the genetics or environment. Due to the fact, there are deficient studies on the risk factors for poor thin ideal internalization; the authors decided to examine the effect of genetics and environment. Participants were female twins from the Michigan state university, and self-report questioners were used to interviewing 1064 twins.

From the study, it is evident there are significant increases in thin-ideal internalization across puberty development and age. As the study suggested, there are minimal effects in etiologic effects in development. However few factors affect the thin-ideal internalization that included genetics at 8% shared environment 15% and non-shared environment at 72%. Therefore the environmental factors, play a significant role in the development process.

Thin-ideal internalization is the process through which the female perceive the thin body as the ideal shape of the body. As a result, there have been some issues with teenagers as they develop eating problems ta this time with the aim of maintaining the ideal body shape. Some factors affect the thin- ideal internalization, and they include the media, parental risks, and peers. In most cases, this occurs ta puberty or in adolescent when the female become aware of the significance of their looks.

From the three articles, growth and development are affected by some factors hence can be modified to enhance the development of a better individual and avoid many psychological disorders. The fours studies show that development is a step by step process that has to be undertaken by as individuals. Any mishap in the steps has dire consequences on the social and mental wellbeing of the individual in their future. At the same time, it is impotent to note as the children develop, their relationships with the people around them has an impact on their future relationships. Lastly it is important to note that genetics don’t have much of a role to play in the growth and development of an individual; instead, the environmental factors play the role. Hence while bringing up children and adolescents, people should pay attention to the various environmental factors that might upset their normal growth and development.

The different theories of development were applicable in the four reading. Erick Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development mostly focuses on early childhood and the importance of fostering healthy growth and development at this stage. Secondly, the psychoanalytic theory of sigmoid Freud explains the sexual development in children more so in the middle childhood and their transformation to adolescents and young adults.

References

Bandy, R., & Ottoni-Wilhelm, M. (2012). Family structure and income during the stages of childhood and subsequent prosocial behavior in young adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 1023–1034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.02.010

Del Giudice, M. (2015). Attachment in Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Perspective. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2015(148), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20101

Suisman, J. L., Thompson, J. K., Keel, P. K., Burt, S. A., Neale, M., Boker, S., ... & Klump, K. L. (2014). Genetic and environmental influences on thin‐ideal internalization across puberty and preadolescent, adolescent, and young adult development. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 47(7), 773-783.

Viana, A. G., Ebesutani, C., Young, J., Tull, M. T., & Gratz, K. L. (2012). Childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of young adults: The mediating role of cognitive biases. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36(6), 670–680. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-011-9414-7