during childhood, is related to high sensation-seeking in adulthood.
Parents, for example, can have an impact on the development of
sensation-seeking. Fearful parents may discourage exploration and
encourage children to fear the unknown (like Marlin the Dad in
Finding Nemo).^27 While other parents may encourage exploration.
This might help explain my relative lack of sensation-
seeking. I remember terrible thunderstorms growing up. In hind-
sight, my mother may have been a teeny bit nervous about storms.
I remember the drill: we would unplug the TV and other electronic
devices, and we were forbidden to use the phone for fear that
lightning would travel into the house and blow up anything that
got in its way, including our brains, if we were unwise enough to
have a phone conversation during a storm. Could my mother’s
nervousness about storms have affected my levels of sensation-
seeking as an adult? After all, kids can learn to be frightened of
the things their parents fear. In the same vein, overprotective
parents can easily discourage kids from exploration, leading the
children to fear new situations in which outcomes aren’t
predictable.
Highly stimulating family environments are associated with
higher levels of sensation-seeking. Where do you find highly stimu-
lating family environments? Highly stimulating childhood environ-
ments are common for only children and first-born kids (especially
in larger families). These are both demographics where you will find
higher rates of high sensation-seeking.^28 Jan Feji and her colleagues
discovered that the larger the family, the higher the level of sensa-
tion-seeking.^29 Why? It could be that the larger the family the more
stimulating (and chaotic) the environment and the less closely par-
ents tend to monitor each kid. This may also stimulate indepen-
dence. How is it that both only children and children that grow up
in larger families have higher rates of sensation-seeking?
Jan Feji and Toon Taris suggested that it really isn’t the
environment, like birth order or family size that’s important, but
rather the parental styles that are created by these environments.
The family environment has an effect on parenting behaviors
which in turn have an effect on sensation-seeking.^30
Religion seems to have an effect as well.^31 Those who say
they are religious or spiritual and who engage in regular religious
activities such as church or synagogue score lower in sensation-
seeking. Researchers examined twins who grew up in different
families and it seems that religious activities lowered sensation-45 / Born to Be WildDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:40, subject to the Cambridge