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Warm childhood environment can lead to better relationship quality 60 years later

Washington D.C. [USA]: Growing up in a warm family environment in childhood is associated with feeling more secure in romantic relationships in the age of 80s, suggests a recent research carried out at Harvard Medical School.

The findings show that men who grew up in caring homes were more adept at managing stressful emotions when assessed as middle-aged adults, that helps to explain why they had more secure marriages late in life.

Lead researcher Robert Waldinger said, “Our study shows that the influences of childhood experiences can be demonstrated even when people reach their 80s, predicting how happy and secure they are in their marriages as octogenarians,”

Adding, “We found that this link occurs in part because warmer childhoods promote better emotion anagement and interpersonal skills at midlife, and these skills predict more secure marriages in late life.”


“With all the things that happen to human beings and influence them between adolescence and the ninth decade of life, it’s remarkable that the influence of childhood on late-life marriage can still be seen,” notes Marc Schulz the co-author of the study.

They examined data collected from 81 men, who participated in a 78-year study of adult development, 51 of whom were part of a Harvard College cohort and 30 of whom were part of an inner-city Boston cohort.










They found that participants, who had a nurturing family environment early in life were more likely to have secure attachments to their romantic partners late in life.



Taken together, these findings highlight the life-long effects of childhood experience, emphasize the importance of prioritizing the wellbeing of children and suggest that supporting adaptive emotion management skills may help to lessen the impact of early childhood adversity.
