Other Words for Learning: Maternal Socialization

Another example of how our common and scientific use of language obscures and undermines our appreciation of the role of learning in our lives.

From the article: Maternal socialization, not biology, shapes child brain activity

Children of mothers with clinical depression are at three times greater risk to develop depression themselves than are their low-risk peers.

“In our study, mothers’ own history of depression by itself was not related to altered brain responses to reward in early school-age children,” said Dr. Morgan. “Instead, this history had an influence on children’s brain responses only in combination with mothers’ parenting behavior, such as the ability to acknowledge, imitate, or elaborate on their child’s positive emotions.”

Depression may disrupt parents’ capacity for emotional socialization, a process by which kids learn from their parents’ reactions to their emotional responses.

From Webster:

The meaning of SOCIALIZATION is the process beginning during childhood by which individuals acquire the values, habits, and attitudes of a society.

Socialization is a term that describes learning to be social. This article is really saying children of mothers with clinical depression are at 3 times greater risk of learning to be depressed themselves.

What’s not learning?