Research reveals importance of early parent-child relations in emotional development

Researchers found that the quality of the relationship in the first 18 months of life predicted the way in which the brain regulates experiences of positive emotion in young adulthood, 21 years later.

The paper "Making an effort to feel positive: Insecure attachment in infancy predicts the neural underpinnings of emotion regulation in adulthood," reports that the brain activity linked to experiencing positive emotions differed between those who were securely attached to their mothers in infancy and those who did not have a secure attachment. The second group engaged additional brain regions when trying to increase their positive emotions, but to less effect.