ABSTRACT

The mother-child relationship is the fi rst that we have, and it is at the core of kinship networks. From the literature on the psychological relationship between mothers and children we know that mothers have a powerful longterm effect on the well-being of their children. But when does the mother’s infl uence on her child’s development start to manifest itself? In this chapter I show that it not only occurs very early but that this early infl uence has a continuing, long-term effect.