Upbringing is the way your parents raised you and the values they taught. A strict upbringing, a religious upbringing, blame his upbringing.
It names the deliberate part of childhood — what was taught rather than what happened — and people reach for it to explain themselves both ways round. Note that it is one word and takes no article in phrases like by upbringing.
1nounupbringingThe way your parents raised you and the values they taught.
“She had a strict religious upbringing and wasn't allowed to watch television.”
upbringing is a rearing.
From the verb bring up, reversed into a noun. Middle English had upbringen with the same sense of rearing.
Middle English
upbringinge
English, today
upbringing
From Middle English upbringinge, equivalent to upbring + -ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA