A healthy family is not shaped out just from the genetics only but it is also influenced by the ability of families to adopt themselves in different internal and external challenges and family experiences. A good family health is developed from interactions of each other between the family members, with better physical, emotional, mental and economical resources within the family. A positive family health promotes caring nature in an individual, better capacity to perform family responsibility which in turn helps members of family with better individual health may it be physical or mental. This study specifically focuses on the long term behavioural and personality effects of early childhood experiences such as poor parenting approaches, which results in many behavioural disorders as an adult, for example a person being abusive or aggressive. This study not only focuses on the negative aspects of childhood and its results but also gets into the positive experiences and its effects as an adult. Psychologists have suggested that variations in adulthood personality may have their origins in childhood experiences associated with exposure to specific parenting styles (Eisenberg et al. 2014 on conscientiousness) and health problems (Caspi and Roberts 2001; Caspi, Roberts, and Shiner 2005).

 People who have undergone negative experiences in childhood such as being neglected, or being abused are more likely to grow up to be one such aggressive person. There are more possibilities of them to turn into a rebel than for the children who have grew up in healthy families. They are at high risk to develop problematic outcomes, it may also be children having difficulty in learning, having more issues with peers. They are also more likely to develop physical health problems or getting themselves involved into risky behaviours, or may develop mental disorders. Many of the people nowadays who exhibit negative role in society or the people who are indulged into such acts are told to have a hard childhood. Many articles about this say that their behaviour that they exhibit is because of the experiences they have faced in their childhood and how it has affected them. This is one of the reasons why a healthy family and positive experiences during childhood is necessary, because these are the major reasons that turn an adult into whatever behaviour he/ she is in.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

There are many articles that talk about how traumas affect the adulthood of a person but there are not many which speaks about all kinds of experiences that a child faces and its effects. There are multiple number of articles and research showing a solid link between the big five personality traits and the choices that they have made in life (the five big personality traits of life include neuroticism, which means the expressed negative emotions, second one being conscientiousness which means the wishing of a person to do better in life, third one is extraversion which means the human nature of being extroverted i.e., being good in their social life and their communications and openness, fourth one is the agreeableness which means the open minded nature of a human to agree to things and situations around them, and the fifth one being openness, which is the ability of an individual to accept things around them with broad mind) Choice may include personal life decisions such as their career or occupation that they are choosing for themselves, their performance level in life may it be in academics or others opportunities, their lifestyle etc. other than the genetic factors that affect an adult not many other factors have been searched. The earlier work on the Five-Factor Model also assumed that personality traits stabilize in young adulthood, but more recent evidence has shown that adulthood personality traits may even change beyond the age of 50 (Fraley and Roberts 2005; Roberts and DelVecchio 2000; Roberts and Mroczek 2008; Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer 2006; Roberts, Wood, and Caspi 2008; Specht et al. 2014). It was told that the environment might affect the behaviour of an individual but nothing was spoken about the parents and their parenting style. But in recent research much knowledge about parenting style and their effects have been taken into consideration. In spite of the research that has been done, there are not many evidences which speak about the failure in physiology of a child in its early years of life. There are many articles that talked about the changes in brain of a maltreated individual and a non maltreated individual. Studies have shown that there is difference in the biological structure of brain. The changes also include the control of emotions between the 2 types of children, their learning capabilities, storage of memory etc. research says that maltreatment is something that influences a child’s or adolescent’s physical and mental health directly, which in turn influences the development of the persons behaviour, personality development and has its effects on the individuals health. There are many numbers of evidences to show that the children who have undergone maltreatment are at a higher risk to suffer from mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and emotional reactivity. Children undergoing maltreatment experiences and other such negative experience play as long term factors which influence a child growth and development not only in mentally, but also affect the cognitive development, socioeconomic status etc.

The only exception is Hengartner et al.(2015) whose studies and survey reports say that the maltreatment experience and emotions faced by a child or an adolescent is not really associated with the adulthood personality traits of an individual.

There was one survey that was conducted around 2015 for not only the children but the survey also focused on the parents, child’s sibling (if any), his/ her fellow mates and related people. It was found as a result that a couple of things mainly triggered child’s personality development and behavioural aspects  that came under maltreatment. From the results of the survey it was found that first thing that triggered was parents not fulfilling child’s basic needs properly such as proper shelter, food, clothing etc. the second thing that was present was parents physically abusing a child maybe it be in hitting a child, slapping them or kicking them for whatever purpose they had in mind. It ended up developing emotional issues in the child. The third one was parents or adult caretakers treating the child in a sexual way, or forcing them into having sexual relations. Many studies and reports speak about this particular point and about how it causes an individual to have childhood traumas. The last point that acted as maltreatment was parents leaving them alone i.e., when parents left the child alone to handle his/ she issues when someone should have been there with the kid to help them. This also includes kids witnessing parents getting divorced or separated and how it affects them. This is one of the major factors that shapes an individual’s personality while growing up.

DISCUSSION:

We mostly find articles talking or discussing about the negative experiences or traumas that an individual undergoes but not many articles bring light about how a healthy family creates a better individual. Having a negative childhood creates traumas in a person, can affect his/ her mental abilities and capabilities, cognitive functions and has so much more of adverse functions, but when an individual grows in a healthy family he/she will know the importance of love and affection, to be a better human, to help others and much more. A healthy family doesn’t have association with the financial wellbeing in particular here because many times parents being too rich can spoil the kid. But a healthy family means the values and good morals that are being passed on to the children. How they emphasize on the importance of a good society and being a good individual. Growing up in a healthy family can influences us in so many ways and each person can influence so many other people. Having a healthy childhood reduces the chances of person undergoing many mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, stress, people being bipolar and so many other conditions. Healthy environment affects our emotional state, them providing support to the child would make so much difference. The child may not realize it but when his/ her performance or confidence level is compared, the confidence of a person who has support would be much more than the one who has not received. Positive childhood experiences act as an advantage for social relationships in a person’s adulthood, in his/ her physical health, their interpersonal relationships outside family as well as their intrapersonal relationships with themselves as to how  they think about themselves as an individual or how confident do they feel in society ( of course the society plays a huge role in a person being confident but the same way how the family and the first circle people think and talk about them would also make a huge difference in shaping an individual), it also influences the productivity of a person may it be in academics or in extracurricular activities, the responsibilities a person decides to take as an individual in their adulthood. Familial warmth and extra familial support are linked to more adaptive traits such as optimism (Johnson, Bromley and McGeoch, 2005). Positive relationships and environments can help children build resilience and to grow up as strong individuals to withstand the adverse experience that life offers to them later in life. Further, these positive factors neutralize the effect of risk factors on an outcome and will have the opposite effect on the outcome (Zimmerman, 2013). Apart from the poor health outcomes that negative environment has, there also exists selected positive health outcomes such as  positive psychology traits (e.g., gratitude, forgiveness, locus of control), execution of a function, better relations with other family members, and healthy eating, which basically helps us observe how having healthy environment not only protects against poor health but also improve health.(Narayan et al., 2018)

Healthy families are generally said to give rise to individuals who are independent on their own, friendly,  who are ethical, who has values and moral, who knows to treat others well and who knows that world can be a better place. But what happens when a person has negative childhood is that they tend to given upon  their dreams and the things they wanted to achieve, there are chances that these people grow up to be bullies or mean to other, they might not be very empathetic. They might end up being the people who give negative experiences to others.

There has been a recent study that was done on college students regarding this topic. Through the survey it was observed that most of the people (about 87% of the people) who have had negative childhood experiences had developed trust issues and related problems in their relationship. It was observed these experiences affects since young age as well. Even the adolescent people had faced problems with their relationships because of the experiences they had had before. They had complications regarding emotional attachments. They were either too attached to someone (because of their need to love/ affiliation) or they never got attached because they were scared to do so after witnessing situations from their childhood. This generation (Gen z ) is seen as the generation who is carefree, too forward for their age, socially very active etc etc. all of this might be true for only half the population or maybe 60 to 65% of it. The rest of the population are struggling with mental health issues, find handling emotions to be difficult, are too scared to get attached to someone, have trust issues etc because of the experiences they have had and witnessed in the childhood. Maltreatment is directly associated with a person developing insecurities. It is common now if someone finds another person with health issues such as PCOD, depression, ADHD etc. people just tend to take in too much than their body could even support sometimes. Having healthy families and positive environments for a person in their early life, in such a competitive and pressurizing world is so important now. And so many people fail to realize that. On failing to realize, children develop issues mentioned above in such young age. A child with satisfied need for affiliation grows up to be a sensible person with good amount of emotions, and capacity to handle them.

SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER

Many children are termed to be introverted or extroverted, outgoing, or too shy, talkative or quiet and so on. One of the major reasons of these behaviours of a kid is its childhood. There are so many people who don’t do well in social situations, and the childhood experiences play a key role. It is said that kids who have undergone traumas at young age are most likely to develop social anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety disorder is of social situations or performance situations where the individual may face humiliation, embarrassment or being made fun of (American psychiatric association, 2000). These kids facing social anxiety disorder must have undergone emotional abuse or emotional neglect in their childhood. These kinds of emotions being faced at a young age develops fear inside a kid’s heart and mind. If not corrected or changed at that age, it is most likely to get carried on even in their adulthood. So being introvert or being not very good at social situations is not just a behaviour but is a behaviour which has its own reasons behind it. Socially anxious people are usually tested with other issues as well, such as depression, problems with self-esteem and confidence. These traits are mostly linked with one another. The very first social setting or situation that a kid faces is its family, so if it is not treated well there then the child will automatically develop fear within itself for outside environment. And this fear inside the head is carried on even as an adult.

STRESS

Disorders such as eating disorder, having anxiety attacks, children at very young age being prone to many diseases now a days, a greater number of people suffering from ADHD, PCOD, insomnia, physical health issues and so many more have actually been seen so much in recent times. A child’s body when it undergoes pressure it might not know its consequences but that doesn’t mean the consequences wont attack. A key factor that influenced the onset of the diseases mentioned above is childhood experience. Children who have not been taken proper care of their mind and health are prone to many issues in an adult. The thought or stress that a child takes at a young age can have deep imprints in its mind. When a child has not been provided with a healthy family environment, it tends to start worrying about things which may develop the child to be an over thinker, or the stress level of the child starts increasing at young age. Stress of course has its own adverse effects that we are already aware of, among which a few are mentioned above. Suffering through ADHD, insomnia or any issues within the body is very difficult to handle for an individual at young age. Stress is something that each and every individual takes, so stress and tension in an adult is unavoidable but stress at young age is avoidable up to a range if the child has been provided with a healthy environment and proper support from the family. They can help the kid understand that taking stress is not necessary, and that the situations can be handled, to teach the child to face situations with courage and confidence and how to handle situations with ease.

CONCLUSION:

There have already been many research papers and articles that have been done by people to understand and analyze the effects that childhood experiences have in an individual’s adulthood. But the main problem in today’s time is that not many people are aware of how much it can impact their child, and how important it is for the child. Parents should first be aware of its effects to take care of their child. People should realize how important each person can be to the society when they grow up. People should be aware of the facts of how to handle a kid with care, how to teach a kid value and morals

Most of the people who are egoistic, who don’t seem to talk much, and the people who have been noted for their negative behaviour will have a reason behind them. Each problem in a person’s attitude will have its own reason in the background. May it be the fact that a person is very friendly, have good morals, respects people, shows affection or maybe a person is too rude, has trust issues, is not comfortable in social situations etc. One of the major reasons behind is what his or her childhood offered them. What experiences they have undergone before. What kind of environment they grew up in. What kind of people were around the child. All such factors make a person who he/ she is. There is a quote from a famous psychologist John B. Watson which state “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief regardless of his talents, penchants” (John B. Watson, nd) . what the quote basically means is that, if Watson was provided with a healthy kid no matter if he is rich or poor, smart, or not very smart, handsome, or ugly, he could turn the kid into anything he wanted him/ her to be by providing them a suitable environment to grow up in. It is majorly just the environment, people, and the method that the kid is being raised with, than the inborn abilities of it that plays a role in the child’s attitude that is developed.

So childhood experience is basically the cake batter in life, which requires good and correct amount of ingredients, to become a delicious cake in the later time.