Children With Strong Family Connections are Most Likely to Succeed in Life

Family Connections Child's Growth Strong Family Connections Growing up with both parents

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Jul 08, 07:52 am

Children with strong family connections are more likely to succeed, per a new study. Strong family connections are important as they play a vital role in children's daily lives and can affect them nearly in all aspects.

The children's home should nurture growth for kids to grow and stimulate the child's mental development, which includes linguistic, cognitive, emotional, and motor skills. A child can focus on improving their abilities in such an environment.

Dr. Robert Whitaker, director of the Columbia-Bassett Research Program at Columbia University in New York City and Lead Study Author, told CNN that numerous studies had shown that strong family bonds lessen the chances of poor outcomes, including risky behavior and drug abuse.

Strengthening a child's bond with the family

According to the study, kids with the most significant family connection were over 49 percent more likely to flourish than those with less.

Elaine Reese, a professor of Psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, affirmed that not having depression and anxiety is not enough to live a good life. To have a good life, a person must have a sense of purpose and meaning at all times, which will serve as the flourishing scale in the study measured.

Those with good family connection were children who lived with both parents, had sufficient food, and were financially stable.

The researchers measured and controlled the data for families' poverty levels, entailing the circumstances financially and food insecurity to abolish the effect they may have had on the numbers. Afterward, the researchers determined that factors they controlled signified that family connection impacted how a child will flourish, per Wral Health.

Adults impact how a child will flourish

If a kid experiences healthy, trusting relationship at an early age, they are more likely to build the same relationships as adults. Outside relationships are salient as this will impact children, especially during infancy and early childhood, said Kelly-Ann Allen, an educational and developmental psychologist and senior lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

In an article in The Limited Times, adults possess a powerful influence on the emotional ambiance of a certain home, so it is crucial to establish a space or an area where children feel seen, secured, and heard.

Children must live in an enriching and stimulating home that will foster a child's healthy growth and brain development by providing a child with love, emotional support, and opportunities for learning and exploration. Usually, in families where one parent is present, there are fewer resources for economic and emotional development.

Grand gestures are not necessarily needed to bond with the children. Having deep and meaningful conversations is more than enough than taking children on an expensive trip.