Question: how far is nature more important that nurture in the early development of children and how may this affect them in later life if handled ineffectively?

Liza Selley answered on 20 Jun 2018:

I think nature and nurture are both very important if you include physical and behavioural traits in ‘development’.

For the nature argument….As a toxicologist I study a concept called the ‘exposome’ which is basically a collection of all the things we have been exposed to throughout our lives – chemicals, medicines, foods, stress, pollution, disease etc. These exposures can greatly impact on our health but also on the health of any children we may have in the future as many chemicals and stresses can affect their physical development in the womb and in later life. Similarly, if someone has a genetic defect they can pass this on to their children.

For the nurture argument… the way that we bond with our parents can have an enormous impact on the relationships that we develop with friends, partners and colleagues later in life. Similarly, the rules, ideas and ways of the world that our parents teach us help to shape our behaviour and personality. Documentaries about serial killers provide an excellent example of when this goes wrong!