Friends and Family Anything but Discount - Pt. II

Last week’s1 newsletter was on the “Home and Work Environmental Wellness”. This week we will focus on “Authority Figures and Peers”. Researchers2 have concluded that 50 to 70 percent of our personality is developed prior to 8 years of age. That means that the impact of parents, teachers, and peers is monumental.

Critical parenting has consistently been associated with depression and undermining a child's emotions. It also increases their sensitivity to emotional health problems such as anxiety and depression. Research3 has focused on three main constructs 1) the degree to which a parent may be overprotective and/or critical, 2) parental modelling of anxiety and 3) the security of the child’s attachment to his or her caregivers.

Overprotective parenting leads to reduced opportunities for the child to approach new and future fearful situations. A child is therefore less able to detect threats in new situations or to cope with difficult situations. This even extends to young adults up to age 19.

Experiences with peers are an absolute necessity for healthy cognitive and social development and socialization. However, 10% of children experience chronic peer relationship difficulties, such as peer rejection and peer harassment which can lead to later life adjustments.

Peers also contribute negatively to social emotional development through bullying and exclusion. This can lead to decreased self-confidence, poor academic performance, isolation, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Due to the current COVID 19 Pandemic, these issues have compounded.

Many researchers4 reported that early peer relationships have a significant correlation with aggressive, delinquent, oppositional, and illegal behaviors. Left untreated, it can lead to a lifetime of pain.

The effects of environmental wellness is very broad and can cause deep issues. My hope was to provide you a glimpse into some of them. If you have, or are struggling with some aspect of your environment, contact me to talk about it. It is affecting all of us much more than we realize.