It’s no secret that where we are born and grow up in has a definite impact on us as human beings. Whether you grew up in a big city or are from a quiet, rural background, this is likely to have shaped you into the person you are today in one way or another.
Recent research has proved this to be accurate, by stating that babies born in a big city are reportedly ‘less fussy’ and ‘not as bothered by limits given by their caregivers.’
Washington State University psychologist Maria Gartstein and WSU graduate student Alyssa Neumann led the study, which looked at the differences in parent-child interactions, infant temperament, and parenting stress between families of similar socioeconomic and racial composition in the San Francisco Bay Area and Inland Northwest.
How Does Growing Up in a City Have a Positive Impact?
The results of the study showed that mothers from an urban background appeared to be better at picking up when their babies needed or wanted something and responded according to their behavior. Because of this, babies from an urban background were generally much calmer and less easily upset. Moms in a rural environment reported that their babies more frequently expressed negative emotions, and they specifically showed distress when introduced to limitations.
Gartstein, who led the research, was surprised at the results and stated:
“I was shocked, quite frankly, at how little there was in the literature on the effects of raising an infant in a rural vs. urban environment,” Gartstein said. “The fact that rural mothers in our study reported more frequent expressions of anger and frustration from their infants may be consequential as higher levels of frustration in infancy can increase risk for later attentional, emotional, social and behavioral problems.”
