Family Atmosphere: How Does it Influence Children's Upbringing?
Raising children is no easy task. The little ones are humans in development that learn little by little with the help of their parents. They learn to regulate their emotions and control their behavior. Parents could embark on this process without knowing how to do it, tired or stressed out by other factors. And so, they can lose patience when their children throw tantrums or misbehave. In this regard, the family atmosphere is a big influence on a child’s upbringing.
All of this influences the family atmosphere, something that is fundamental to the child’s upbringing. Despite knowing the effects of the family atmosphere, people tend to pay more attention to other factors. Some of these other factors are the way in which parents have to set limits or make their children meet certain social norms. In this article, we’ll discuss a topic that’s not widely studied: the influence of the family atmosphere on a child’s upbringing,
“When you have children yourself, you begin to understand what you owe your parents.”
-Japanese proverb-
What is the family atmosphere?
To have a better understanding of how the family atmosphere influences upbringing, we must first identify what we mean by “family atmosphere”. It’s the wellbeing or the unrest that results from the interaction between the different family members.
These interactions vary. They range from punishments, accusations, or limits to help, judgments, or reinforcements. It’s social behavior. As is easy to imagine, these behaviors could have a significant effect on other members of the family.
Children have an influence on the parents and, likewise, parents have an influence on their children. Regarding upbringing, the family atmosphere could influence their self-reliance, their commitments, their motivation, their academic achievements, and their habits or routines.
How to identify a negative family atmosphere?
That being said, the influence can be positive or negative. A negative family atmosphere arises when these interactions favor egocentric, violent, disruptive, or intolerant behaviors. This interferes with their well-being.
As a matter of fact, when this happens, we find low levels of cohesion between family members and many conflicts. As expected, it then becomes a source of stress that carries an emotional weight for children and parents alike. Not only that, but it also produces behavioral problems for the little ones, becoming a risk factor for everyone’s well-being.
What leads to this type of family atmosphere? Parents have certain habits that favor this. In fact, evidence suggests that being overly authoritarian and using punishment repeatedly, exclusively, and disproportionately can cause a negative family atmosphere. Another cause can be the lack of clear rules in the family.
“I know why families were created with all their imperfections. They humanize you. They are made to make you forget yourself occasionally so that the beautiful balance of life is not destroyed.”
-Anis Nin-
How to identify a positive family atmosphere?
There’s a positive atmosphere when parents establish clear rules, use time-outs, and other reinforcements more frequently than punishment. Additionally, they try to reason with the kids, they hear them out, they praise them, and support the positive behavior they want their children to adopt as habits.
This way, social behaviors arise along with interest, respect, assistance, participation, and confidence. Children have more autonomy, self-esteem, and confidence and so they grow in a more stable and competent way, socially, physically, behaviorally, and affectionally.
Ultimately, the family atmosphere is one of those variables that can significantly influence upbringing either positively or negatively. Having adequate relationships and family ties are essential. This way, they can assimilate interaction patterns that will favor their social relationships and their confidence.
Images by Kevin Delvecchio, John Mark Kuzniet, and Sebastian León Prado.
