Mohammadreza Hojat, Ph.D.

“Love, and lack of it, changes the young brain forever.”   (Lewis, Amini, & Lannon, 2000, p. 89)

Nature has bestowed on mothers unique privileges that can have a significant influence on human ecology, defined as the study of physical, mental, social, and economic factors in human societies.  The quality of maternal care early in a child’s life contributes to the development of an emotional regulatory system that exerts substantial influence on a person’s physical, mental, and social well-being from the cradle to the grave.

The emotional regulatory system, defined as the process that enables individuals to control the quality, quantity, intensity, frequency, and duration of their emotional responses (Marx et al., 2005) is a key concept in connecting maternal care to human ecology.  

The child’s ability (or inability) to regulate his or her emotions depends heavily on the quality of care provided by his or her mother (Weinberg et al., 1999).  Human infants are well equipped for social behavior because they are endowed with a system of affect that can be regulated if the conditions are right.  The physical and emotional presence of the mother who responds lovingly to her child’s needs, on demand, lays the foundation for the right conditions for personality development.  Emotional attunement between a mother and her child paves the road to the development of emotional regulation (Black, 2004).

The ability to regulate one’s emotions is necessary to demonstrate prosocial behavior, altruism, and empathy.  In contrast, the inability to regulate one’s emotions leads to aggressiveness, noncompliance, and sociopathic behavior.  For example, research has shown that when mothers are warm, their children display concern for others.  In contrast, the children of mothers who are emotionally distant display a deficit in empathy, a lack of remorse, and disruptive behavior (Hastings et al., 2000).  Robinson et al. (1994) reported that maternal warmth can predict higher levels of empathic response in children.  It seems that motherhood, in itself, is associated with the enhancement of humanistic feelings.  For example, Sanson-Fisher and Maguire (1980) reported that female medical residents who were mothers displayed less cynicism and more humanistic feelings toward patients.  

Mother or Father?

Although the quality of the relationship with the father is important in the socioemotional development of children (Lamb, 1981), research suggests that mothers play a more significant role than fathers do in the development of personality attributes.  For example, in a study of 928 medical students, I found that the students’ perceived satisfaction with their mother in childhood was significantly associated with less loneliness, less depression, less anxiety, and more resiliency regarding stressful life events in adulthood.  Such associations were not found for students’ perceived relationship with their father (Hojat, 1998).  

In another study, we found that medical students who perceived high levels of satisfaction with their early relationship with their mother scored higher on empathy than did those with lower levels of satisfaction.  No such association was observed between empathy and the perceived paternal relationship (Hojat et al., 2005).

Motherhood and Human Ecology

In a broader context, motherhood is relevant to human ecology that attempts to promote the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through education, prevention, and empowerment (http://www.hecol.ualberta.ca/).

Research has shown that nonmaternal care experienced in the day care setting increases the likelihood of aggressive and noncompliant behavior in children (Belsky, 1988).  In a recent longitudinal study with a large sample of children in the United States, Belsky and colleagues (2007) not only confirmed the previous findings but also reported that children who experienced nonmaternal care (in the day care setting) continued to manifest behavioral problems through the sixth grade.  Obviously, this type of care is not conducive to human ecology. 

Maternal care not only can influence prosocial behavior but can enhance a child’s immune system and physical health as well.  Obviously, this kind of care is conducive to human ecology.  It is well known that a mother’s breast milk produces antibodies, acquired over her lifetime, that enhance her child’s immune system and physical health.  Breast milk also kills cancer cells.  On the basis of the findings that maternal care can lead to the child’s physical health (e.g., immunocompetence), mental health (e.g., positive personality profile), and social well-being (e.g., prosocial and empathic behaviors through the function of the emotional regulation system), one can conclude that motherhood can have positive effects on the three elements of human ecology:  physical, mental, and social well-being.  These three elements are also considered to be the pillars of well-being in the definition of human health proposed by the World Health Organization (1948).

Diminishing Interest in Motherhood

The decline of interest in motherhood observed in most industrial societies has led to a deficit in the number of children, which obviously is not conducive to human ecology.  Because of its grave consequences on human survival, this “baby deficit” phenomenon, described in an article in Science (2006), is not a trivial matter.  The decline of interest in motherhood in some industrial societies has already led to an alarming decline in fertility rates.  The situation is so critical that governments in some European countries are offering financial childbearing incentives to mothers (Science, 2006).

To maintain the current population, the fertility rate must be at 2.1 (the replacement level in industrialized countries), or slightly more than the flat rate of 2, to counteract infant-child mortality.  The fertility rates in some European and Asian countries are currently well below the replacement level:  for example, Poland and Japan, 1.25; South Korea, 1.27; Italy, Spain, and Russia, 1.28; Germany, 1.39; Canada, 1.61; Australia, 1.76; France, 1.84; and Ireland, 1.86 (Science, 2006).  

Several factors can explain the “baby deficit” phenomenon:  easy access to effective contraception and abortion, women’s employment outside the home, delay of marriage, postponement of pregnancy after marriage, and, most important, a decline of interest in motherhood related to changing attitudes toward marriage, family, and parenthood (Science, 2006).

Monetary Value Versus Survival Benefit of Motherhood

A recent study of 40,000 mothers in the United States suggests that if the typical stay-at-home mother were paid for her child-care responsibilities and housework, she would have an annual income of $138,095. Also, for the employed mother, child care responsibilities and housework would add $85,939 a year to her earnings (http://mom.salary.com , accessed May 3, 2007).  Although this kind of monetary assessment presents a rough estimate of the material gain for the stay-at-home or employed mothers, it would be impossible to make a fair monetary assessment of maternal care with regard to human ecology.  Society benefits from maternal care because prosocial behaviors, as opposed to antisocial behaviors, create a safer community for everyone.  Therefore, because of its survival benefit to human kind, motherhood is a priceless endeavor that cannot be assessed in monetary terms.

The Role of Public Health Professionals

More than a decade ago, I indicated that radical liberalism and extreme feminism were waging an open assault upon motherhood (Hojat, 1993).  It is a dream of these advocacy groups to celebrate the achievement of their organizational agenda at the graveside of motherhood.  To prevent this dream becomes reality, concerned medical, behavioral, and social scientists must consider a mandate for a universal campaign to be acted upon sooner rather than later.  The efforts of these advocacy groups to condition the human mind to deny the gift of motherhood inflict more pain and suffering on human kind than a massive nuclear explosion! 

I believe that the issue of reversing the trend of diminishing interest in motherhood cannot be reversed solely by begging governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, or even philanthropic or charity groups to help.  Furthermore, I believe that re-conditioning and re-educating young people─with the help of medical, behavioral, and social scientists through educational institutions and public media─to regain the deserved respect for parenthood and to understand the true value of maternal (and paternal) roles in the construction or destruction of human ecology will contribute to reversing the current trend.

Concluding Remarks

We falsely believed that in the new millennium, the insanity of nuclear war would lead to the end of human life.  However, it never occurred to us that by destroying the human interest in parenthood, we could set in motion self-destructive behavior that would ultimately, and quietly cause the human race to eradicate its own kind.

References

Belsky, J. (1988). The “effects” of infant day care reconsidered. Child Research Quarterly, 3, 235-272.

Belsky, J., Burchinal, M., McCartney, K., Vandell, D. L., Clark-Stewart, K. A., & Owen, M. T. (2007). Are there long-term effects of early child care? Child Development, 78, 681-701.

Black, D. M. (2004). Sympathy reconfigured: Some reflections on sympathy, empathy and the discovery of values. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85, 579-595.

Hastings, P. D., Zahn-Waxler, C., Usher, B., Robinson, A., & Bridges D. (2000). The development of concern for others in children with behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 36, 531-546.

Hojat, M. (1993). A mother’s love: What children will not receive in day-care centers. [Interview] The Family in America, 8, 1-7.

Hojat, M. (1998). Satisfaction with early relationships with parents and psychosocial attributes in adulthood: Which parent contributes more? The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 159, 203-220.

Hojat, M. Zuckerman, M., Gonnella, J. S., Mangione, S., Nasca, T. J., Vegare, M., & Magee, M. (2005). Empathy in medical students as related to specialty interest, personality, and perceptions of mother and father. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 1205-1215.

Lamb, M. E. (Ed.). (1981). The role of father in child development. New York: Wiley.

Lewis, T., Amini, F., & Lannon, R. (2000). A general theory of love. New York: Vintage Books.

Marx, B. P., Heidt, J. M., & Gold, S. D. (2005). Perceived uncontrollability and unpredictability, self-regulation, and sexual revictimization. Review of General Psychology, 9, 67-90.

Robinson, J. L., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Emde, R. N. (1994). Patterns of development in early empathic behavior: Environmental and child constitutional influences. Social Development, 3, 125-145.

Sanson-Fisher, R., & Maguire, P. (1980). Should skills in communication with patients be taught in medical schools? Lancet, 2, 523-526.

Science. (June 30, 2006). News: The baby deficit, 312, 1894-1897.

Weinberg, M. K., Tronick, E. Z., & Cohn, J. E. (1999). Gender differences in emotional expressivity and self-regulation during early infancy. Developmental Psychology, 67, 905-914.

World Health Organization. (1948). World Health Organization constitution: Basic documents. Geneva, Switzerland.