Ep. 55: What do we know about a child's sensitivity to their environment?

Orchid or dandelion? Highly sensitive or relatively robust? These are some of the ways that we have conceptualized the concept of how sensitive a child is to the environment in which they are raised. Through a combination of nature and nurture, some of our kids are just that much more sensitive. But are they sensitive their whole lives? What genetics make this happen? What environments are good or bad? None of it is quite as simple as it may sound which is why I'm so excited to have one of the pioneers in this field joining me to talk about his decades of work on this sensitivity to the environment, or differential susceptibility as he has called it. Dr. Jay Belsky is one of the first to have identified this differential susceptibility and has helped lead all of us - parents, educators, and researchers alike - towards a better understanding of how nuanced this issue is. And why so much more is still left to be done. Dr. Jay Belsky: https://humandevelopment.ucdavis.edu/people/jay-belsky Articles of Interest: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/beyond-orchids-and-dandelions-susceptibility-to-environmental-influences-is-not-bimodal/4ADAF88C7F63FF2C2CDE99880943C3B7 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-29903-001 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-022-01574-9 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/differential-susceptibility-20-are-the-same-children-affected-by-different-experiences-and-exposures/277792E67173ED12678A0180A5FD6892 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/abs/distinguishing-differential-susceptibility-diathesisstress-and-vantage-sensitivity-beyond-the-single-gene-and-environment-model/C2CFEBE39AFEA4C2FC29BA3F37895A41 'The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life': https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983458

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The Evolutionary Parenting Podcast with Tracy Cassels, PhD focuses on topics and research relevant to parents today. Using developmental psychology, biology, anthropology, and evolution as a basis for all discussion, the podcast explores parenting issues like sleep (including sleep training, co-sleeping, and bedsharing), breastfeeding and feeding, discipline, and more. Tracy interviews both professionals who are in the parenting world and researchers whose research is relevant to today's parents. For parents who want to understand how our children have evolved to develop, how we as parents can help them thrive, and the role of science in all of this.