Children need community

I agree but as an only child mum of one it's hard

I agree, I am a single parent with one teen dd so have made a lot of effort to invest in extended family and friends so dd still feels part of a wider community.

I'm lucky that my parents and sibling still lives close by, I also have close friends that I grew up with that have been actively involved in dds life.

Community is important for everyone imo.

I agree and I’m lucky my child has this. My parents are very involved with all of their grandchildren and often have them over for sleepovers, I’m always babysitting my nephews and having them here to stay over. I want it to be like a second home for them and my son really benefits from that. He also gets it from our scouting community where there are a number of trusted adults who he is happy to go off with at camps and days out etc and he has formed really special relationships with them. He has had a lot of loss in his life so this is important to me that he is a part of a bigger family than just us.

In cases where there is significant abuse from parents the evidence is that having just one adult who is interested in a child and cares about them can have a significant positive impact.

There's a surprisingly large amount of abuse and neglect out there.

A lot of the "village" these days is in institutions. Pre schools, nursery, schools. I worked in a school for many years and our pastoral team went above and beyond. I remember one in particular who spent the night with a girl who had tried to kill herself in hospital when the parents were nowhere to be seen.

There's also brownies, scouts, and for older teens the village can be army/air/st John cadets.

I agree OP, multiple interested and caring adults is better than just two. Having a shared childhood with multiple children rather than just your own siblings offers far more possibilities for later connection.

Obviously, the presence of abusive or toxic relationships is bad, but it's also bad to let the fear of abuse/toxicity limit your child's interactions with other people.

It depends on the type of person children are surrounded by: one or two good caregivers are better than a village of people who will impact them negatively.

Totally. My kids grew up in a village where neighbours would tell them off if they crossed the road without looking, fetch them home if they fell off their bike, let me know if their den had become and eye sore etc. They knew which door to knock on if ever there was an emergency. I trust my neighbours and they trust me. There is no anti-social behaviour in the village because all the kids now that all the adults know one another.
A young child’s social group should be Immediate family then wider family then friends and neighbours before they start school in order to be well adapted for Reception.

As you say, circumstances differ.

My MIL's advice when DD was crying non stop as a 3 month old baby, was to leave her crying in her cot, shut the door and turn the radio up really loudly. Was I supposed to trust her to look after DD ? She had no interest in her anyway, so it's a moot point, but still.

Moving away or frequently, toxic or abusive childhoods etc mean that people aren't as connected as before. Sometimes, that's actually better for the children, rather than continuing the intragenerational trauma.

I'd love to see a study on this - but I'm not terribly convinced a 'community' or the mythical 'village' has much impact if your immediate family are caring and there are no adverse events (poverty, bereavement, addiction, abuse or neglect).
If anything being left with multiple different adults increases the risk of abuse - I see many people professionally who were abused by 'trusted adults' (often from the extended family, although sadly the dad or stepdad are probably commonest).
My parents moved for work many hours drive from nearest relatives so although relationships with aunts/uncles/gp were good we'd only see them max 3 times a year on visits. Can't say it bothered me as a child or adult.