Baby-Mother Bonds Affect Future Adult Relationships, Study Finds

LiveScience:

A mother lode of bonding – or a lack thereof – between moms and young children can predict kids’ behavior in romantic relationships decades later, a new study suggests.

Adding to evidence that even preverbal memories are firmly imprinted on young psyches, researchers found that children who had been more securely attached to their mothers, now grown, did better at resolving relationship conflicts, recovering from those conflicts and enjoying stable, satisfying ties with their romantic partners in early adulthood.

“It’s often very difficult to find the lingering effects of early life being related to adult behavior, because life circumstances change,” said study author Jeffry A. Simpson, a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. “People change, but there’s a kernel of stability from early experience in a lot of people.”

Read the whole story: LiveScience