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. 2019 Aug 2;32(1):16.
doi: 10.1186/s41155-019-0129-0.

The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development

Darcia Narvaez  1 , Lijuan Wang  1 , Alison Cheng  1 , Tracy R Gleason  2 , Ryan Woodbury  1 , Angela Kurth  1 , Jennifer Burke Lefever  3
Affiliations

The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development

Darcia Narvaez et al. Psicol Reflex Crit. .

Abstract

One of the primary means of communicating with a baby is through touch. Nurturing physical touch promotes healthy physiological development in social mammals, including humans. Physiology influences wellbeing and psychosocial functioning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections among early life positive and negative touch and wellbeing and sociomoral development. In study 1, mothers of preschoolers (n = 156) reported their attitudes toward positive/negative touch and on their children's wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes, illustrating moderate to strong positive correlations between positive touch attitudes and children's sociomoral capacities and orientations and negative correlations with psychopathology. In study 2, we used an existing longitudinal dataset, with at-risk mothers (n = 682) and their children to test touch effects on moral capacities and social behaviors in early life. Results demonstrated moderate to strong relationships between positive/negative touch and concurrent child behavioral regulation and positive correlations between low corporal punishment and child sociomoral outcomes. In a third study with adults (n = 607), we found significant mediation processes connecting retrospective reports of childhood touch to adult moral orientation through attachment security, mental health, and moral capacities. In general across studies, more affectionate touch and less punishing touch were positively associated with wellbeing and development of moral capacities and engaged moral orientation.

Keywords: Affection; Corporal punishment; Maternal attitudes; Morality; Touch; Wellbeing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Social thriving predicted by touch attitudes, separate models. All coefficients are standardized. Coefficients for positive touch and corporal punishment attitudes are separated by “/” for all predictors. Latent variable loadings and covariances are constrained in both models and are the same for both models. Positive touch attitudes predicting social thriving fit indices: robust χ2(67) = 94.599, p = .015; robust CFI = .963; RMSEA = .051, 90% CI = [.025, .073]; SRMR = .054. Corporal punishment attitudes predicting social thriving fit indices: robust χ2 (67) = 145.120, p < .001; robust CFI = .902; RMSEA = .086, 90% CI = [.068, .105]; SRMR = .063
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Antisocial behavior predicted by touch attitudes, separate models. All coefficients are standardized. Coefficients for positive touch and corporal punishment attitudes are separated by “/” for all predictors. Latent variable loadings and covariances are constrained in both models and are the same for both models. Positive touch attitudes predicting antisocial behavior fit indices: robust χ2 (34) = 56.791, p = .008; robust CFI = .942; RMSEA = .066, 90% CI = [.035, .093]; SRMR = .055. Corporal punishment attitudes predicting antisocial behavior fit indices: robust χ2 (34) = 65.569, p = .001; robust CFI = .921; RMSEA = .077, 90% CI = [.051, .103]; SRMR = .058
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Theoretical model for mediation across constructs: from touch (positive touch and lack of corporal punishment in childhood) to attachment (security), mental health (anxiety and depression), and moral capacities (empathy, perspective-taking, or personal distress) and then to moral orientation (social engagement, or self-protectionism as social withdrawal or social opposition)
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