The research compiled by analysing results from 60 participants found that while some people may indeed become more 'hard-nosed' through adversity, the majority become less trusting of their own judgement. It surprisingly found that early positive experiences make people stronger in later life.
The study was originally planned to see if suggestibility might affect police suspects. The participants were asked about their adverse experiences in life, which included major illnesses, miscarriages, bullying at school and parental divorce. The researchers then found that 70% of the variation in suggestibility between persons could be explained by the negative and traumatized events that they had experienced.
Psychologist Kim Drake, who led the study, said that the people who had experienced an adverse childhood and adolescence were more likely to come to believe information that isn't true. What this means he further clarified was that those people were more suggestible, and easily misled, that could affect their
future.
The study also found that the parental role is an important issue, and parents with positive outlook in life are able to impart the same feelings to their children, which might help them to learn healthy skills or ways of dealing with events in life that were negative or stressful.
