Nursery World - Health & Wellbeing: Exploring the importance of early adult-child relationships

Building positive relationships between infants and carers is key to prosocial behaviour and later mental health. By Annette Rawstrone

Research also firmly supports the importance of young children forming strong attachments with their carers.

Apivotal role in fostering positive outcomes for children’s mental health is played by early years practitioners, according to the lead author of a recent Cambridge University study into the importance of early parent-child relationships.

The research, ‘The role of parent-child interactions in the association between mental health and prosocial behaviour: Evidence from early childhood to late adolescence’ (see Further information), found that people who experienced warm and loving relationships with their parents when they were three years old not only tended to have fewer mental health problems during early childhood and adolescence but also displayed heightened ‘prosocial’ tendencies – socially desirable behaviours intended to benefit others, such as kindness, empathy, helpfulness, generosity and a willingness to volunteer.

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