{"id":131187,"date":"2020-12-02T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=131187"},"modified":"2026-09-12T15:45:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T20:45:36","slug":"podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #665: How Childhood Shapes Adulthood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ask an adult, especially if they&#8217;re struggling in life, what caused them to end up the way they did, and they might cite certain factors from their childhood, like having&nbsp;a mother that was too cold.<\/p>\n<p>The problem here, of course, is that memories change over time, and narratives about the past develop to fit one&#8217;s current situation.<\/p>\n<p>My guests today work on the kind of research that corrects this problem to figure out how aspects of childhood truly affect adulthood, by studying humans from the time they&#8217;re babies through middle age and beyond. Their names are Jay Belsky and Terrie Moffitt, and they&#8217;re professors of human development, and two of the four contributors&nbsp;to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0674983459\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0674983459&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life<\/em><\/a>. To begin our conversation, Jay and Terrie discuss the longitudinal studies they and their colleagues&nbsp;have used to track people over decades of their lives, and how aggressiveness and shyness in childhood end up impacting adulthood. We then discuss the limitations of the famous marshmallow&nbsp;experiment, and what these more expansive longitudinal&nbsp;studies&nbsp;have shown about the importance of self-control in achieving a successful&nbsp;adulthood. We unpack whether the negative&nbsp;outcomes associated with being bullied in childhood are inevitable, who&#8217;s most likely to become a bully, and who&#8217;s most likely to be&nbsp;bullied (which as it turns out, isn&#8217;t a matter of being fat or wearing glasses). We discuss how children who act out in childhood, but avoid making certain&nbsp;mistakes in adolescence, can still turn out okay, and why you probably&nbsp;shouldn&#8217;t worry about children who were good kids, but get into a little trouble in their teen years. We also dig into the impact that childcare has on kids, and the role that genes play in development. We end our conversation with some allowance-related ideas for cultivating greater self-control in your kids.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask an adult, especially if they&#8217;re struggling in life, what caused them to end up the way they did, and they might cite certain factors from their childhood, like having&nbsp;a mother that was too cold. The problem here, of course, is that memories change over time, and narratives about the past develop to fit one&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":195011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-372x230.png","aom-large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-1200x675.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Childhood Shapes Adulthood [With Parenting Tips!] | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ask an adult what caused them to end up the way they did, and they might cite certain factors from their childhood. Is it accurate?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #665: How Childhood Shapes Adulthood | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ask an adult what caused them to end up the way they did, and they might cite certain factors from their childhood. Is it accurate?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-02T17:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-12T20:45:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/665.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AoM Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #665: How Childhood Shapes Adulthood\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-02T17:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-12T20:45:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/665.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/\",\"name\":\"How Childhood Shapes Adulthood [With Parenting Tips!] | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-665-how-childhood-shapes-adulthood\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/665.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-02T17:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-12T20:45:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"description\":\"Ask an adult what caused them to end up the way they did, and they might cite certain factors from their childhood. 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