The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind

  • Melvin Konner
Belknap Press: 2010. 960 pp. $39.95, £29.95 0674045661 | ISBN: 0-674-04566-1

The late English poet Philip Larkin took a stark view of childhood, writing in This Be The Verse: “Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.” Yet we clearly need to nurture children to survive as a species. And there is more to childhood than survival: our psychological state later in life is shaped by our extended infancy. Psychologist and anthropologist Melvin Konner places childhood firmly within an evolutionary framework in his magisterial book.

Synthesizing decades of research across many disciplines, The Evolution of Childhood highlights evidence for interactions between genes and the environment in what Konner calls the “behavioural biology of psychosocial development”. He argues that it is the essence of life — and especially of childhood — to interact with, recognize and change in response to the environment. Such shifts are brought about on many levels by evolutionary algorithms.

The early relationship between parent and child is crucial to later development. Credit: E. MCCONNELL/GETTY

The book is structured in four parts: evolution, maturation, socialization and culture. The first part firmly places ontogeny — the development of the individual — at the heart of evolution and explores our current understanding of the brain and behaviour in relation to it. The second section focuses on the physiological paths of maturation of neural and neuro-endocrine systems, which allow psychosocial development. The third part turns to comparative cross-species and cross-cultural approaches to understanding and reconstructing phylogeny and history. The fourth considers interactions between genes and culture, and the effects of human cultural variation on their evolution.

The parent–infant relationship is central to Konner's understanding of childhood. Parents perceive infants' cues and respond appropriately and promptly. Such interactions are evident from the moment of a baby's birth. When parents imitate and elaborate their infant's facial expressions they communicate a wealth of social information, a process that was noted by pioneers of evolution such as Charles Darwin.

The responsiveness that Konner describes implies that interventions early in life can enhance the well-being of future generations, often at a fraction of the cost of delayed attempts to do so in adolescence and adulthood. It is well established that parent–infant interactions in the first 18 months are crucial to the child's later health. Perturbations to these relationships, such as postnatal depression — which occurs in around 13% of mothers and 5% of fathers in rich countries — can adversely affect behavioural, emotional and cognitive outcomes in adulthood. Infants of mothers with postnatal depression are at increased risk of experiencing anxiety and depression later in life.

Although not mentioned in the book, there is emerging evidence that the common congenital abnormalities of cleft lip and palate in infants can create difficulties in interactions between parent and infant. Infants who had their cleft lip repaired within the first week of birth had better psycho-social outcomes later in life than those who received the surgery a few months after birth. Seemingly small differences in parental responses in early infancy can have a large impact on later development.

Such findings are suggestive of the power of social pleasures in general in shaping our lives. Although we are only just starting to gain insight into how our emotional brains are constructed in childhood, a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms might allow us to intervene and have a positive influence on future generations — perhaps helping them to see the glass as half full rather than half empty.

Konner is an excellent tour guide to the sacred lands of childhood. He has produced a scholarly, detailed and beautifully written study, although its very length makes it challenging to read and use as a reference work. The Evolution of Childhood shows that the pleasures of life are linked to the evolutionary imperatives of reproduction and survival, and that we are starting to understand their underlying neural mechanisms. Contrary to Larkin's views, it is clear that meaningful social interaction with children is not only a basic pleasure but also helps children to fulfil their potential.