The Nature of Nurture: Rethinking Why and How Childhood Adversity Shapes Development

From a leading expert on child development, a radical evolutionary perspective on how childhood experiences shape later life.

Children who grow up in troubled circumstances—experiencing deprivation or instability, living in a dangerous neighborhood or an abusive family—are more prone to aggression, recklessness, and sexual promiscuity later in life. To most of us, the lesson is clear: adverse childhood conditions make human development go awry.

In The Nature of Nurture, renowned developmental...