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A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at predictors of young adults’ primal world beliefs in eight countries.

“This study is about beliefs about the world held by young adults in eight countries,” study author Dr. Jennifer Lansford told us. “We were hoping to discover what experiences during childhood and adolescence predict beliefs about the world in early adulthood.”

The researchers hypothesized that experiences during childhood and adolescence would be directly related to beliefs about the world in early adulthood. For example, if children lived in a dangerous neighborhood, they would be less likely to believe the world is safe during early adulthood. 

“Adults' beliefs about the world are importantly related to their mental health, but we know little about how these beliefs develop,” Dr. Lansford told us. “Our goal was to better understand how adults come to hold these beliefs that are so critical to their functioning in the world.”

The researchers recruited a sample of 8-year-old children and their parents in eight countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States). Between the ages of 8 and 16, children and their parents reported on their neighborhood danger, socioeconomic status, parental warmth, harsh parenting, psychological control, and autonomy granting. When the children were young adults, they reported on their beliefs that the world is good, safe, enticing, abundant, and progressing. The researchers analyzed whether experiences during childhood and adolescence predicted beliefs about the world in early adulthood.

“We found that parental warmth, which involves parents making their children feel loved and accepted, was related years later to young adults' belief that the world is safe (rather than dangerous) and enticing (filled with beautiful and wonderful things, rather than dull),” Dr. Lansford told us. “A number of other experiences during childhood and adolescence were not related to these beliefs—parental warmth was uniquely important.”

The researchers were surprised that some experiences in childhood were not directly predictive of young adults' beliefs about the world. For example, children who grew up in more dangerous neighborhoods did not necessarily grow up to believe that the world is dangerous.

“The results speak to the importance of parental warmth, love, and acceptance,” Dr. Lansford told us. “This is a hopeful message for parents because fostering warm and loving relationships with their children is something most parents can do that has the potential to pay important dividends for children's future development.”