Childhoods and Relationships as Adults

     There are lots of questions about how early childhood experiences can affect people later in life. How childhood affects intimate relationships later in life is the main focus of the article. The study was a longitudinal study so it spanned over many years. It started during the Great Depression and 60 years later the scientists followed up with the same people and it was concluded that the men who were raised in warm, loving environments had better relationships with partners later in life.

     The idea of the importance of attachment came in the 1960’s. The two scientists involved were in charge were Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. The original study took 268 sophomores at Harvard and 456 inner city teens from lower class households. There were lengthy interviews and observations at home of the relationships between the members of the household. Many years later, the Harvard researchers held more interviews with the then middle aged men and how they managed their negative emotions. Then, once the men were in their 80’s, they conducted last interviews to see how the men’s relationships were with their partners. The results were that men who had warm environments as children had healthy attachments with their partners later in life.

     While it is an interesting find, there are scientists out there that believe that attachment can evolve with time. There are people who are raised in difficult situations, but overcome it and have healthy relationships later on. Also with this study, there are confounding variables such as the fact that this study was only done with Caucasian men and various other contributions. But, the fact of the matter is that taking care of children at a young age can greatly affect lifelong development. 

J.M

Citation:

Caruso, Catherine. "Men with Happier Childhoods Have Stronger Relationships in Old Age." Scientific American. N.p., 18 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.