The Science

Every animal has a nest for its young that matches up with the maturational schedule of the offspring (Gottlieb, 1997). Humans too! The Evolved Nest (or Evolved Developmental Niche; EDN) refers to the nest for young children that humans inherit from their ancestors. It's one of our adaptations, meaning that it helped our ancestors survive. Most characteristics of the evolved nest emerged with social mammals more than 30 million years ago. Humans are distinctive in that babies are born highly immature (only 25% of adult-sized brain at full-term birth) and should be in the womb another 18 months to even resemble newborns of other species! As a result, the brain/body of a child is highly influenced by early life experience. Multiple epigenetic effects occur in the first months and years based on the timing and type of early experience. Humanity's evolved nest was first identified by Melvin Konner (2005) as the "hunter-gatherer childhood model" and includes breastfeeding 2-5 years, nearly constant touch, responsiveness to baby's needs, multiple responsive adult caregivers, free play with multiple-aged playmates, positive social support for mom and baby. Calling these components the Evolved Developmental Niche, Narvaez and colleagues add to the list soothing perinatal experience (before, during, after birth) and a positive, welcoming social climate. All these are characteristic of the type of environment in which the human genus lived for 99% of its existence. Below are publications and a powerpoint about the evolved nest.

Why does the evolved nest matter? Early years are when virtually all neurobiological systems are completing their development. They form the foundation for the rest of life, including getting along with others: sociality and morality. The papers below have reviews describing specific nest components and their effects, as well as empirical papers on the effects of the nest on child and adult development.

BOOKS

Contexts for Young Child Flourishing: Evolution, Family and Society (ed. with Braungart-Rieker, Miller-Graff, Gettler, Hastings; OUP, 2016) 

**Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom (Narvaez; W.W. Norton, 2014) 

Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing (ed. with Valentino, Fuentes, McKenna, & Gray; OUP, 2014) 

Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (ed. with Panksepp, Schore, & Gleason; OUP, 2013) 

THEORETICAL AND REVIEW PAPERS

Gleason, T. R., & Narvaez, D. (2019). Beyond Resilience to Thriving: Optimizing Child Wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(4), 59-78. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i4.987

Narveaz, Darcia, Ryan Woodbury, Ying Cheng, Lijuan Wang, Angela Kurth, Tracy Gleason, Lifang Deng, Eveline Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, Markus Christen, Catherine Näpflin (2019). Evolved Developmental Niche Provision Report: Moral Socialization, Social Thriving, and Social Maladaptation in Three Countries. 

Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (2013). The value of using an evolutionary framework for gauging children’s well-being.  Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 3-30). New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (2013). The Future of human nature: Implications for research, policy, and ethics. In D. Narvaez, J., Panksepp, A. Schore, & T. Gleason (Eds.),. Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 455-468). New York: Oxford University Press. 

Narvaez, D., & Gleason, T. (2013). Developmental optimization. In D. Narvaez, J., Panksepp, A. Schore, & T. Gleason (Eds.), Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy (pp. 307-325). New York: Oxford University Press.

Gleason, T., & Narvaez, D. (2014). Child environments and flourishing. In D. Narvaez, K. Valentino, A., Fuentes, J., McKenna, & P. Gray (Eds.), Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing (pp. 335-348).  New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Gray, P., McKenna, J., Fuentes, A., & Valentino, K. (2014). Children’s development in light of evolution and culture. In D. Narvaez, K. Valentino, A., Fuentes, J., McKenna, & P. Gray (Eds.), Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing (pp. 3-17).  New York: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Gettler, L., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., & Hastings, P.  (2016). The flourishing of young Children: Evolutionary baselines. In Narvaez, D., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., Gettler, L., & Harris, P. (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (pp. 3-27). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D., Hastings, P., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., & Gettler, L. (2016). Young child flourishing as an aim for society. In Narvaez, D., Braungart-Rieker, J., Miller, L., Gettler, L., & Hastings, P. (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (pp. 347-359). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Kohlberg Memorial Lecture: Revitalizing human virtue by restoring organic morality. Journal of Moral Education, 45(3), 223-238.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Returning to humanity’s moral heritages. Journal of Moral Education, 45(3), 256-260. 

Empirical Papers on Relations of the Evolved Developmental Niche to CHILDREN's Wellbeing and Moral Development

Narvaez, D., Woodbury, R., Gleason, T., Kurth, A., Cheng, A., Wang, L., Deng, L., Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E., Christen, M., & Näpflin, C. (2019). Evolved Development Niche Provision: Moral socialization, social maladaptation and social thriving in three countries. Sage Open, 9(2)

Darcia Narvaez, Lijuan Wang, Alison Cheng, Tracy R. Gleason, Ryan Woodbury, Angela Kurth & 

Jennifer Burke Lefever. The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development. Psicologia: Reflexão e Críticavolume 32, Article number: 16 (2019) 

Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Wang, L., Brooks, J., Lefever, J., Cheng, A., & Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect (2013). The Evolved Development Niche: Longitudinal effects of caregiving practices on early childhood psychosocial development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28 (4), 759–773. Doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.07.003

Narvaez, D., Wang, L., Gleason, T., Cheng, A., Lefever, J., & Deng, L.  (2013). The Evolved Developmental Niche and sociomoral outcomes in Chinese three-year-olds. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10(2), 106-127.

Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Lefever, J.B., Wang, L., & Cheng, A. (2016). Early experience and ethical orientation. In D. Narvaez, Embodied morality: Protectionism, engagement and imagination (pp. 73-98).  New York, NY: Palgrave-Macmillan. 

Gleason, T., Narvaez, D., Cheng, A., Wang, L., & Brooks, J. (2016). Wellbeing and sociomoral development in preschoolers: The role of maternal parenting attitudes consistent with the Evolved Developmental Niche. . In D. Narvaez, J. Braungart-Rieker, L. Miller, L. Gettler, & P. Hastings (Eds.), Contexts for young child flourishing: Evolution, family and society (166-184). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Empirical Paper on the Relation of Evolved Developmental Niche History to ADULT Wellbeing and Morality

Darcia Narvaez, Lijuan Wang, Alison Cheng, Tracy R. Gleason, Ryan Woodbury, Angela Kurth & 

Jennifer Burke Lefever. The importance of early life touch for psychosocial and moral development. Psicologia: Reflexão e Críticavolume 32, Article number: 16 (2019) 

Narvaez, D., Wang, L, & Cheng, A. (2016). Evolved Developmental Niche History: Relation to adult psychopathology and morality. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 294-309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1128835 

Narvaez, D., Thiel, A., Kurth, A., & Renfus, K. (2016). Past moral action and ethical orientation. In D. Narvaez, Embodied morality: Protectionism, engagement and imagination (pp. 99-118). New York, NY: Palgrave-Macmillan. 

Evolutionary Developmental Systems Theory Applied to Morality

Is Darwin's 'Moral Sense' Epigenetic? (powerpoint) 

Narvaez, D. (2015). The neurobiology of moral sensitivity: Evolution, epigenetics and early experience. In D. Mowrer & P. Vandenberg (Eds.), The art of morality: Developing moral sensitivity across the curriculum (pp. 19-42). New York, NY: Routledge.

Narvaez, D. (2015).  The co-construction of virtue: Epigenetics, neurobiology and development. In N. E. Snow (Ed.), Cultivating Virtue (pp. 251-277). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (2016). Baselines for virtue. In J. Annas, D. Narvaez, & N. Snow  (Eds.), Advances in virtue development: Integrating perspectives (pp. 14-33). . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Narvaez, D. (in press). Ethogenesis: Evolution, Early Experience and Moral Becoming. In J. Graham & K. Gray (Eds.), The Atlas of Moral Psychology, New York, NY: Guilford Press.

PRESENTATIONS

"The Ethics of Early Life Care: The Importance of the Evolved Nest" (Narrated presentation with powerpoint)

MEASURES

EDN-HISTORY MEASURE for adults (from Narvaez, Wang & Cheng, 2016)

Family Life Attitudes and behavior Measure (FLAM; Narvaez, Wang, Gleason, Cheng, Lefever, & Deng, 2013)

Evolved Nest Provision Report (parental report for child's recent experience) (Narvaez et al., in preparation)