Family influences on psychological development

Early in life, infants develop attachment relationships that contribute to their wellbeing and are shaped by the sensitivity of their parent/caregiver. Sensitive-responsive parenting further predicts higher levels of cognitive and social functioning through the early and middle-childhood years. Parental knowledge of a child’s friends and awareness of how the child spends his/her time become particularly important during the adolescent years. Hostility, harsh discipline and coercive control undermine wellbeing throughout childhood. Some evidence indicates that effects of parenting vary by family race-ethnicity and by child emotional and genetic characteristics. Also contributing to children’s development is the quality of marital relations and the stability of family life.