Between family members, there are a lot of different forms of relationships. There is a filial relationship between a parent and their child, a sibling relationship between two children, and more. Positive relationships have already been established as a positive factor that helps in the growth and development of children.  The concept of a positive relationship is rooted in the emotions of the family members. The emotions of the family members are then influenced by family, as seen through family practices, family environment, and learning experiences. A positive family influence, such as practicing supportive parenting and parental involvement, has been seen to play a vital role in an adolescent’s emotional development.

Here are ways how the family influences a person’s behavior:

WARMTH AND POSITIVITY

A family with parents that foster a warm and positive environment often results in children with good control and regulation of their emotions, which predicts low tendencies of aggression and delinquency. When a family fosters this kind of environment, the family becomes a safe space, and the child develops a secure attachment to the parents. This secure attachment is linked with effective control over a person’s emotions. Attachment is critical in the effectiveness of controlling emotions because it is established upon early in life. When a parent is harsh and hostile, these emotions are passed onto the children as well. These can be attributed to impulsive, aggressive, and non-compliant adolescents.

LACK OF MISTREATMENT

When the parents treat their children with tender love and care, they will grow up with proper emotional understanding and regulation. Comparing this to when a child is mistreated, there is significant stunting to the child’s emotional development. This lack of emotional development can be attributed to the lack of sensitive interactions that the parents have with their children. Homes that maltreat their children often have hostile and disorganized environments and lead to the children harboring negative emotions that will reflect on their behavior. Abusive households often manifest in their children anger, frustration, and irritability. These children also develop overwhelming emotional arousal, causing difficulty in managing their emotions and leading to a deficiency in recognition of emotions.

PARENTS WITH LITTLE CONFLICT

Parents that always engage in conflict between themselves can have negative effects on adolescents, and they often become more aggressive and often act out. These negative behaviors are typical of parents who always fight because they do not usually have the time to take care of the children as their stress levels are always high. This is very similar to the cases of abuse in the earlier section, but the parents direct the abuse toward each other instead of the children. However, there are also cases where the high-stress levels of the parents due to constant conflict manifest in abusive behaviors toward the children. When the children witness these fights, they develop negative emotions that then translate into destructive behavior.

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The last factor that can affect the behavior of children is the economic environment that they grow up in. Financial status is an integral part of how much a family can function because those with a poorer financial status often have difficulty living their day-to-day lives compared to those who are more well off. More impoverished families often have parents who end up neglecting their children in favor of more jobs to help their families out. Wealthier families also end up with more satisfied children because they are more inclined to get the things they want. Poorer parents develop a sense of helplessness when they face economic problems, which wealthier parents don’t regularly experience. They also end up creating the negative circumstances mentioned above that lead to children developing bad behaviors, such as abusive households full of marital conflict. This disparity in economic status can lead children born from poorer families to create negative emotions.

These family characteristics heavily affect how much a child’s behavior can develop. More often, if the factors that affect a child’s negative emotional growth are identified, they become easier to avoid.

The dynamic between how much a family can affect the behavioral development of a person is a common trope in media nowadays; an exciting read that uses this idea and incorporates it into their story is Without Consent by Virginia Degner, available on Amazon now.

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Reference used:

[1] Kim, J., Riser, D., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2011, October 3). Emotional development. Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Retrieved July 30, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123739513000156