Pre-School Children & Nurturing

In the 1990s an increasing amount of research points to the fact that children who are raised in environments lacking nurturing often experience psychosocial issues later in life. What is unique about this new body of evidence is that it suggests children are affected by such factors much earlier than previously assumed. While attachment and bonding theories have long suggested infants and pre-school children are affected psychologically by early interaction with parents and other care-givers, new evidence suggests pre-school children are not only more prone to later psychosocial problems from ineffective interaction but that they are also much more capable of learning and understanding at this age than traditionally thought. What is more disturbing is that most of the lack of nurturing is prompted by various social conditions that are prevalent in modern times. Poverty, lack of parental education and single-parent (primary care-giver unavailable) have been shown to affect the degree of psychosocial development in young children the most. Studies have been conducted which show these contributors to an environment that lacks nurturing make children at risk for poor psychosocial development, “More than 20% of all children are currently growing up in poverty, over 50% of children will live at some point in a single-parent home, and 26.3% of parents are dropouts” (Harleen 1). This analysis will discuss the a

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Neglect is far more widespread than people are willing to admit” (Sherman 1). Many wealthy or educated and achieving parents neglect their children because they are too wrapped up in their own lives and their own problems to provide adequate levels of nurturing (care) for their children. In addition, a divorce in the two-parent family can have devastating affects on children five and younger. In a now famous study, Judith Wallerstein observed pre-school children and found that their socialization and psychological and physical development had been adversely affected due to the loss of a primary care-giver in the home. The shocking elements of the study are not just that children under the age of five can be so severely affected by the loss of a nurturing parents, but also that these effects are witnessed in them in early as well as adult life: Half of the pre-schoolers still displayed heightened anxiety and aggression a full year after their parents’ divorce. 44% were found to be in significantly deteriorated psychological condition. All of the two and three year olds showed acute regression in toilet training. They displayed unusual hunger for attention from strangers. Wallerstein’s study also returned to its subjects
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Approximate Word count = 1559
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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