By Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela Rodrigues
One of the most important factors in determining characteristics such as an individual’s personality and mental health is, without a doubt, their family context. The place, the way of life, the number of people present throughout a child’s life have a great power to modulate, through mirror neurons, the individual’s personality and behaviors.
Although there is a consensus that there are impacts within the family on children’s development and health, there is controversy about the nature of these impacts.
In a recent study, scientists analyzed teenagers, with an average of 14 years old, from the USA and China to draw a parallel between the number of siblings and mental health, concluding that there is an inversely proportional relationship between them. This finding contradicts a previous study that focused on analyzing Norwegian children, between 3 and 8 years old, but which reached the opposite conclusion, that mental health is greater the more siblings there are.
These studies show how complex this topic is and that the number of siblings is just one factor among several, such as, for example, the country, since countries with greater technological development and greater consumption tend to have a more fragile relationship of attention from parents. parents towards their children, which we can see in the differences in results from the analysis of the USA and China and Norway.
This lack of attention to children is a very important factor that must also be considered as it can trigger problems with emotional intelligence, self-esteem, seeking to attract attention in inappropriate ways, self-image, feelings of neglect, among others, which affect their entire lives. of the individual.
Therefore, I repeat, it is important to consider scientific discoveries, but being rational in your analysis, understanding that studies must be looked at and understood in a context that also influences the results. The family is an important pillar in the development of children, but care must be taken with how this family welcomes and stimulates the child or adolescent.
REFERENCES:
NUMBER of Siblings and Mental Health Among Adolescents: Evidence From the US and China. Journal of Family Issues, [sl], 2023. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X231220045 . Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192513X231220045 . Accessed on: 17 Jan. 2024.
EFFECT of household size on mental problems in children: results from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study. BMC psychology, [sl], 2016. DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-016-0136-1 . Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27255744/ . Accessed on: 17 Jan. 2024.
About Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela
Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela Rodrigues MRSB is a Post-PhD in Neuroscience elected member of Sigma Xi, member of the Society for Neuroscience in the United States, member of the Royal Society of Biology in the United Kingdom and of the APA – American Philosophical Association also in the United States. Master in Psychology, Degree in Biology and History; also a Technologist in Anthropology and philosophy with various national and international training in Neuroscience and Neuropsychology. Member of the high IQ societies Mensa, Intertel, ISPE High IQ Society, Triple Nine Society, ISI-Society, Numerical and HELLIQ Society High IQ. Author of more than 220 scientific articles and 17 books.
