Touch deprivation

Touch deprivation is a condition that involves little or no stimulation by way of physical contact with other people. Human touch has been proven to be vital to emotional, psychological, and physical growth in infants and, to some extent, in older children and adults. Deprivation can cause developmental deficiencies in babies. Studies have shown that in extreme cases, touch deprivation can lead to infant death. In adults and older children, touch deprivation is related to conditions such as depression, aggression, and eating disorders.

Studies on Touch Deprivation

In early development and behavior studies of the 1950s, Harry F. Harlow completed several experiments with rhesus monkeys that involved separating newborns from their mothers. Each baby lived with surrogates in the form of either a wire mother shape equipped with a feeding bottle or a similar form that was soft and padded. Invariably, the babies preferred the soft, comforting mother, visiting the wire dummy only to feed. However, all the monkeys developed abnormal behavioral patterns and reactions as they grew up. Even when the babies were able to see and hear other monkeys, they did not develop normally.

Since then, numerous studies have shown that touch deprivation has serious effects on human babies and young children. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the mortality rate of babies in institutions, including hospitals, was nearly 100 percent. Because they were separated from their parents, isolated in cribs, and rarely picked up, these infants suffered acute stress in addition to their medical conditions. As recently as the 1990s, young children in Romanian orphanages were found to be physically undersized and emotionally unresponsive after lives deprived of sensory stimulation, especially touch. Even after being adopted, some children were unable to develop close attachments to their parents and siblings.

Studies also reveal that touch—especially skin-to-skin contact—between parents and babies is beneficial to both. Stress hormones drop, and babies cry less and sleep more soundly. Mothers who held their babies reported less stress and depression. Adults also benefit physically and emotionally from touch, including massage, hugging, and sexual intimacy.

Animal studies have shown that depriving young mammals of normal maternal care and socialization results in depression, withdrawal, violence, aggression, and other emotional disorders, which researchers attributed to touch deprivation. Such behavioral aberrations in humans have been tied to deficits in the cerebellum, whether from lack of sensory stimulation or congenital malfunction that prevents the normal desire for touch.

Measuring Touch Deprivation

Several methods have been used to evaluate touch deprivation. The Touch Deprivation Scale, developed by Jason S. Wrench and Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter, is a questionnaire that asks participants to read about touch deprivation and then rate their own experiences to various statements on the sixteen-question form. The measurement uses a five-degree scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree to find any correlations between touch deprivation and early nurturing, depression, self-esteem, and same-sex touching. The results of a survey of about 200 undergraduate students showed that a significant number of participants longed for touch and nurturing. It also found a connection between touch deprivation and depression and low self-esteem.

Touch deprivation also shows up in blood hormone analyses. Higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured in young children living in conditions of touch deprivation. Their cortisol levels remained high even after months of fostering. However, in most instances where high blood cortisol levels were measured, touching lowered them significantly.

Symptoms of Touch Deprivation

Babies deprived of touch may suffer from a condition called failure to thrive. Even if a child receives adequate nourishment and is kept clean and safe, their physical and psychological growth is affected in the absence of a caregiver's frequent loving touch. After the prominent nineteenth-century pediatrician Dr. Luther Emmett Holt published his book The Care and Feeding of Children (1894), parents took to heart Holt's advice to avoid indulging the baby's cries to be rocked or carried, as it would lead to bad habits. Doctors soon noticed more babies, though seemingly well-fed and cared for, were failing to thrive as a result of touch deprivation. Less significant deprivation, while not fatal, has been found to contribute to withdrawal, aggression, or other long-term behavioral irregularities.

Adults also suffer if they lack sufficient physical contact with others. Depression is closely linked to touch deprivation in adults, and research has established associations between touch deprivation and eating disorders. Men are more likely to suffer from touch deprivation than women because of stronger social prohibitions against same-sex touching among adult males in some cultures.

Relieving Touch Deprivation

The simplest remedy for insufficient touch is to touch and invite touch from family members and friends. However, some people lack close relationships or find touching friends awkward or uncomfortable. A popular way to increase touch is through massage therapy. Massage provides not only the therapeutic kneading of muscles but also skin contact with another person. Proponents of massage believe its growing acceptance among healthcare professionals shows its value in healing and pain reduction, in addition to easing depression. Controlled studies testing the effects of massage on a variety of physical ailments consistently showed improvement in such symptoms as elevated blood pressure, anxiety, and pain. Children with conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder also benefited, showing improved behavior and concentration after two weeks of massage therapy.

Bibliography

Barkley, Sarah. “What Does It Mean to Be Touch Starved?” PsychCentral, 2 Aug. 2022, psychcentral.com/health/ways-to-self-soothe-when-starved-for-touch. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.

Fulkerson, Matthew. "Touch." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 12 June 2024, plato.stanford.edu/entries/touch/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.

Harmon, Katherine. "How Important Is Physical Contact with Your Infant?" Scientific American, 6 May 2010, www.scientificamerican.com/article/infant-touch. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.

Prescott, James W. "Early Somatosensory Deprivation as an Ontogenetic Process in the Abnormal Development of the Brain and Behavior." Medical Primatology, edited by I.E. Goldsmith and J. Moor-Jankowski, S. Karger, 1970, pp. 356-375, www.violence.de/prescott/mp/article.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.