Hardwired to Connect

This post continues the last one:

Authoritative communities can be families with children and all civic, educational, recreational, community service, business, culture, and religious groups that serve or include persons under the age of 18 that exhibit certain characteristics.

These characteristics are: 1) it is a social institution that includes children and youth; 2) it treats children as ends in themselves; 3) it is warm and nurturing; 4) it establishes clear boundaries and limits; 5) it is defined and guided at least partly by non-specialists; 6) it is multi-generational; 7) it has a long-term focus; 8) it encourages spiritual and religious development; 9) it reflects and transmits a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person; 10) it is philosophically oriented to the equal dignity of all persons and to the principle of love of neighbor.

The Commission's report represents the first time that neuroscientists have collaborated with social scientists who study civil society to improve outcomes for children. It is also represents the first time that a diverse group of scientists and leading children's doctors are publicly recommending that our society pay considerably more attention to young people's moral and spiritual needs. Said the child psychiatrist Dr. Kathleen Kovner Kline of the Dartmouth Medical School, the report's principal investigator:

“As children's doctors, we began this project because our waiting lists are too long. Our challenge today is to shift from treatment alone to treatment plus prevention. Broad social changes are required. We need to become environmental advocates for childhood."

What Recent Research SuggestsIn searching for strategies to improve outcomes for children, the Commission reviewed research on the brain and human behavior from the last two to five years. Among the main scientific findings on which the Commission has based its recommendations are:

The mechanisms by which we become and stay attached to others have a biological basis and are increasingly discernible in the basic structure of the brain.

Nurturing environments, or the lack of them, influence the development of brain circuitry and the way genes affect behavior.

The old ``nature versus nurture" debate – focusing on whether heredity or environment is the main determinant of human conduct – is no longer relevant to serious discussions of child well-being and youth programming. New scientific findings are teaching us to marvel at how nature and nurture interact. These findings suggest that strong nurturing can reduce or eliminate the harmful effects of genes that are associated with aggression, anxiety, depression or substance abuse.

Primary nurturing relationships influence early spiritual development, and spiritual development can influence us biologically in the same ways that primary nurturing relationships do. For instance, spirituality and religiosity can be associated with lower levels of stress hormone (cortisol), more optimism, and commitment to helping others.

Religiosity and spirituality significantly influence well-being. The human brain appears to be organized to ask ultimate questions and seek ultimate answers. Findings are described in detail in the attached copy of the Commission's report.