*WINNER* Parents’ Perspectives of Nature or Nurture in their Children’s Development

Abstract

This won best undergraduate poster for Human Ecology.

In this qualitative study, I investigated how children grow up and mature by way of their parents’ nurturing skills as well as their genetic makeup. The purpose is to understand how parents raise their children and whether the children develop and morph into what their parents raise them to be or whether the children develop into their own unique person. Data was collected qualitatively using open-ended interviews. The interviewees consisted of three head family members, a mother and father respectively. These interviewees were selected based on the following: family one is a standard family consisting of three kids from age three to seven, all born in wedlock, and two working parents. Mother is a licensed family therapist and father is a professor at Lee University. Family two is a more dynamic family with five kids from age five to twenty-one. Family three is a court legal family consisting of two kids that are both three, the kids are not related to each other or their parents, instead both are foster children. All the data collected from these interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis involves the identification, analysis, and reporting of themes arising from data. After analyzing the data, I found out that children will be who they are meant to be, who they are “coded” to be, but parents can continue to shape and lead their children on more specific paths through proper and constructive nurturing techniques.