The way you were brought up significantly impacts your adult behavior.

Ideally, your parents should have reached a balance between teaching you basic life skills, allowing you to experience adversity, and letting you learn the concept of consequences.

However, some of them go a little overboard when it comes to keeping kids safe.

While protection from certain dangers can provide a sense of security, it can also hinder personal growth.

Here are 12 signs you’ve lived a highly sheltered life without realizing it, according to psychology.

It’s not too late to come out of your shell.

1) You don’t know how to navigate conflict

If you were overprotected growing up, there’s a chance you never had to learn how to stand up for yourself.

As a result, you don’t know how to navigate conflict as an adult.

According to psychology, people-pleasing tendencies are a common consequence of living a sheltered life.

Your elders hovering over you all the time might have left you with a desire for approval, so now you struggle to handle disagreements in a healthy way.

As conflict is an unavoidable part of life, you see how this might be an issue.

2) You lack independence

My dad worked overseas when I was young, and my mom worked in shifts at a hospital.

I was by myself a lot during my teenage years, so I had to learn self-care basics, like feeding myself.

Additionally, my parents made sure I earned my allowance by doing chores. I wasn’t a complete stranger to laundry or cleaning once I went to college.

While I still struggled with being on my own for the first time, I had a head start.

Not everyone was in the same boat.

I’ve had colleagues with no idea of how to make a pasta dish or iron their T-shirts.

They lived a highly sheltered life up until that point, so they didn’t know how to operate without help.

I still consider myself lucky.

3) You have trouble making decisions

If you have difficulty making decisions, you’ve likely lived a highly sheltered life without realizing it.

According to psychology, overprotected children can have trouble thinking independently or making decisions.

They always had someone else steer them in one direction or another.

You can assess your behavior to figure out if this is the case:

• Do you frequently procrastinate making decisions, even indefinitely?
• Do you rely heavily on others’ opinions or seek external validation before making a decision?
• Do you spend excessive amounts of time analyzing every possible outcome?
• Do you delegate decision-making tasks to others?
• Do you constantly second-guess yourself?

It may be time to finally learn how to stand on your own two feet.

4) You fear failure

When your parents watch your every move and make sure you put your best foot forward, you encounter far fewer obstacles along the way.

This can make you fear failure later in life, according to psychology.

If your childhood environment was structured to shield you from challenges, failure is not only unfamiliar but downright threatening.

The problem?

You can’t succeed in life if you’re not comfortable with potentially dropping the ball.  

The only way to grow a thicker skin is to take more risks, which doesn’t come naturally to overprotected folks.

That brings us to the next point on the list.

5) You struggle with change

Sheltered individuals have minimal exposure to diverse perspectives, cultures, and experiences.

Consequently, they may struggle to adapt to changes that involve unfamiliar ways of thinking and behaving.

They prize routine and comfort because they had limited opportunities to develop adaptability skills like problem-solving and resilience.

Does that sound like anyone you know?

6) You have repeatedly been called naïve

Given their limited life experience, sheltered kids can grow up to become naïve adults:

• They’re susceptible to believing wild claims without questioning their validity
• They don’t excel at evaluating evidence and making reasoned judgments
• They’re more vulnerable to manipulation by others
• They have an idealistic view of the world and unrealistic expectations of life in general

If you’ve been repeatedly called naïve by friends or loved ones, you fit the pattern.

It’s essential to develop better critical thinking skills, or people will take advantage of your trusting nature.

7) Your social skills are lacking

Limited social skills can be another side effect of living a sheltered life, according to psychology.

Maybe your parents were strict about attending social events and they kept you close by, so you’ve missed out on having a big circle of acquaintances.

Without opportunities to interact with different people, it’s harder to naturally develop the social confidence and skills needed to navigate various environments.

You might struggle with small talk or have trouble reading social cues.

Or, you experience social anxiety – and being around others sounds scary rather than like a nice way to spend the day.

A good therapist can help with that.

8) You don’t have street smarts

On a similar note, people who were overprotected growing up often have a street smarts deficiency.

You can be highly intelligent and still lack the practical knowledge required to navigate the complexities of everyday life.

It’s because being constantly sheltered from potentially risky situations inhibits the development of the self-reliance needed to navigate real-world challenges.

Now, you can’t tell if someone’s intentions are nefarious, and may even lack awareness of common dangers associated with being out and about.

Instead of preparing you for real life, your parents left you vulnerable.

9) You don’t know how to set boundaries

If you’ve lived a highly sheltered, you probably find it challenging to set boundaries.

In a sheltered environment where rules are dictated by authority figures, you don’t learn how to assert your own boundaries effectively.

Additionally, you might have a deep-founded desire to maintain harmony and prioritize everyone’s needs before your own.

So when you become an adult, you can’t even pinpoint what your needs and desires are.

A little soul-searching will fix that.

10) You can’t put yourself in others’ shoes

People who live a highly sheltered life can have trouble understanding someone else’s reality – or not even realize that others struggle with stuff they never thought about.

They wrestle with understanding viewpoints that differ from their own, leading to closed-mindedness and intolerance.

Or, they’re entitled, believing that they deserve special treatment just because they constantly received it growing up.  

When you had close to no exposure to diverse perspectives and ideas growing up, you should brace yourself for a harsh reality check.

11) You get into all sorts of trouble

I had a close friend in school who wasn’t allowed to socialize much.

Her parents were strict, so she stayed home while the rest of us went out to parties and engaged in the usual teenage shenanigans.

When we all moved away for college, she tried to overcompensate for lost time.

She was perpetually partying and taking needless risks, to the point where I became worried for her well-being.

Luckily, she learned to slow things down and got back on track with her studies, but it was touch-and-go for a minute.

According to psychology, helicopter parents may alienate children rather than instill in them the same values their family has.  

In other words, overprotected kids are prone to rebel when they first experience freedom.

Sounds like you?

If so, don’t take things too far.

You can indulge in everything life has to offer at a slower, more sustainable pace.

12) You feel behind your peers

Finally, many kids who grew up sheltered feel behind their peers once they enter the real world.

They kick off adulthood at a disadvantage, lacking some of the skills that come naturally to everyone else.

This makes them feel isolated and misunderstood.

If you struggle with self-worth and prefer to hide than put yourself out there, give it a little time.  

It gets better.  

Final thoughts

If you recognize the signs above, it’s time to break free from the constraints of a sheltered upbringing.

Assert your independence and seek out new experiences on a regular basis.

The more you put yourself out there, the more your confidence will grow.