Contexts for Young Child Flourishing: Evolution, Family, and Society - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190237791 ISBN 13: 9780190237790

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Human beings have the most immature newborn and longest maturational schedule of any animal. Only 25% of the adult brain size is developed at full-term birth, and most of the brain's size and volume is co-constructed by caregivers in the first years of life. As a result, early life experience has long-term effects on physiological and psychological wellbeing.

Contexts for Young Child Flourishing uses an evolutionary systems framing to address the conditions and contexts for child development and thriving. Contributors focus on flourishing-optimizing individual (physiological, psychological, emotional) and communal (social, community) functioning. Converging events make this a key time to reconsider the needs of children and their optimal development in light of increasing understanding of human evolution, the early dynamism of development, and how these influence developmental trajectories. There is a great deal of misunderstanding both among researchers and the general public about what human beings need for optimal development. As a result, human nature unnecessarily can be misshaped by policies, practices, and beliefs that don't take into account evolved needs. Empirical studies today are better able to document and map the long-term effects of early deficits or early assets, mostly in animal models but also through longitudinal studies. An interdisciplinary set of scholars considers child flourishing in regards to issues of development, childhood experience, and wellbeing. Scholars from neuroscience, anthropology, and clinical and developmental studies examine the buffering effects of optimal caregiving practices and shed light on the need for new databases, new policies, and altered childcare practices.

About this title

About the Author

Darcia Narvaez, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Moral Psychology Lab at the University of Notre Dame. She studies moral development through the lifespan with a particular focus on early life effects on the neurobiology underpinning moral functioning.

Julia M. Braungart-Rieker, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families at the University of Notre Dame. Her work focuses on social and emotional development during infancy and early childhood.

Laura E. Miller-Graff, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research examines the developmental effects of exposure to violence in childhood.

Lee T. Gettler, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Hormones, Health, and Human Behavior Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the way in which men's hormonal physiology responds to major life transitions, such as marriage and fatherhood.

Paul D. Hastings, PhD, is Chair and Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, where he is also a member of the Center for Mind and Brain, and the Center for Poverty Research. His research focuses on examining dynamic influences between neurobiological regulatory systems and socialization experiences, and their multilevel contributions to adaptive and maladaptive socioemotional development in children and adolescents.

Review

"We live now in a social world that is poorly designed for children; and, as a consequence, our children are suffering-even those who are not born into poverty. It's high time that we understand that there is a natural environment for children's healthy development. This book is a wonderful step toward describing that environment and helping us achieve it."
--Peter Gray, PhD, Research Professor, Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Releasing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

"Narvaez and colleagues have again constructed a tour de force of sensible and revolutionary perspectives on optimal child rearing practices. It is long past time to realize that even near-term infants in utero already have emotional minds, built upon universal affective principles, upon which the rest of the mind is constructed-the cognitive architectures that are unique for each individual. Parents that are sensitive to the realities of their infants' emerging affective minds will help assure optimal development (even fathers talking and singing to their pre-term babies), thereby providing fundamental brain-mind tools that help assure future mental health and happiness. [This book] is an essential guide for understanding and promoting the 'better angels of our nature' through sustained nurture."
--Jaak Panksepp, PhD, Professor and Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science, Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0190237791
• ISBN 13: 9780190237790
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Narvaez Darcia, Braungart-Rieker Julia M., Miller-Graff Laura E., Gettler Lee T., Hastings Paul D.