Childhood can predict a great deal about how adult life might play out. For instance, research has shown that people whose childhood involved poverty, abuse and neglect have poorer health and shorter lives than those who have happy, stable childhoods.
Is there a way to overcome a bad start? The evidence suggests that strong social ties may be one way to make up for adversity in early life. People (and other animals such as killer whales, hyraxes and baboons) with strong adult friendships are healthier and live longer than those without such bonds.
I am a biologist working on how social environments affect development and lifespan. I recently collaborated with statisticians and other biologists to understand whether harsh conditions in early life led to weak social relationships and poor health, or if close friendships could develop in adulthood in spite of a tough childhood. We also wondered if having close friends could potentially even make up for a poor early life.
To answer these questions, we studied a population of wild baboons in Kenya. Scientists often use animal models to test hypotheses that are difficult to study in humans. Baboons are a useful proxy for humans because they are similar in their life cycle, social relationships, physiology and behaviour. And research has shown that the effects of early adversity and social bonds on lifespan in humans are paralleled in baboons.
KEYS TO SURVIVAL
The most important result of our research is that early life adversity and adult social relationships have independent effects on survival. That is, both early life environments and adult social bonds have strong effects, but they don’t depend on each other.
This story is from the Farmer's Weekly 2 June 2023 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
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This story is from the Farmer's Weekly 2 June 2023 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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