Abstract
One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Physiology influences wellbeing and psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections among early life positive and negative touch and wellbeing and sociomoral development. In study 1, mothers of preschoolers (n = 156) reported their attitudes toward positive/negative touch and on their children’s wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes, illustrating moderate to strong positive correlations between positive touch attitudes and children’s sociomoral capacities and orientations and negative correlations with psychopathology. In study 2, we used an existing longitudinal dataset, with at-risk mothers (n = 682) and their children to test touch effects on moral capacities and social behaviors in early life. Results demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between positive/negative touch and concurrent child behavioral regulation and positive correlations between low corporal punishment and child sociomoral outcomes. In a third study with adults (n = 607), we found significant mediation processes connecting retrospective reports of childhood touch to adult moral orientation through attachment security, mental health, and moral capacities. In general across studies, more affectionate touch and less punishing touch were positively associated with wellbeing and development of moral capacities and engaged moral orientation.
Highlights
One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch
We explored whether different patterns of association between child outcomes and parental attitudes versus behaviors pertaining to physical affection and corporal punishment would emerge and whether there were different patterns for positive and negative touch
We examined the influence of maternal touch attitudes and behavior on child prosociality and behavior problems, hypothesizing that the relations found in the first study would be replicated and that we would find longitudinal effects of early life touch on later sociomoral outcomes
Summary
One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Touch and physiological development serves as a base for socio-moral behavior Integrating ethological and anthropological research, Bowlby (1951) pointed out the importance of touch for young humans, describing the importance of bonding and attachment with caregivers—processes that require responsive touch in early life. These findings connecting touch to myriad physiological and social outcomes suggest that touch might have a role to play in regulatory systems of social development. We used the evolved developmental niche (EDN) as a framework for thinking about the kind of touch-related care that might support optimal moral development
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.