It is a complicated issue. I would not call it "artificial" though maybe "not genuine" (although it may seem they are the same they are pretty different) would be a better choice. Anyway its an interesting subject which is also one of my favorite, "child development". The conditions we face with at first 5 years after birth is crucial in constructing our character. Thats the time when environment is the most powerful. Its typical that the first child of the family because there are no competitors around has some significant differences from other siblings. But narrowing down the subject to being social and self-sufficiency we can say that first child of the family tent to be more self-sufficient because there is no sibling to play around at home. Self-play also have an important role in child development. A child should be able to play by herself.
To make it happen parents should leave the child time to time alone for playing. In some crowded families we can see the opposite effect of this. Because adults are all the time next to the child, they never stay alone by themselves, so what happens in the future? Maybe you may notice there are many adults who cannot stay alone in any place, or get bored very fast when they are alone. They always need a friend to be together or to talk. These are the typical symptoms of lacking self-sufficiency.
Researches show that self-sufficient people are more creative and able to be good at something. Thats normal cause focuse and self motivation is pretty related with self-sufficiency.
Growing up in a small population also creates similar conditions for self-sufficiency. At some point we can accept this as a gift.
I know a lot of people who are almost never alone, and they get bored and anxious even if they have to spend one evening alone with their own thoughts. I can't relate to that, at all. I know it probably comes from, like you said, childhood and always being surrounded by people. But it doesn't mean you can't learn how to be with alone.
Just like I'm trying to learn how to spend time with people, to sometimes share my personal space with another human, in order to be a somewhat functional member of society.
Well thats right we can learn some basic things later on but learning to be social is easier if we compare it with the ability to stay alone or be self-sufficient. Because we are social species so even though in our childhood we develop weak social skills, we can change this in adulthood by practicing and self-motivation. By the way socializing is not only about being a member of a group or to feel functional, it is also helpful for self-development cause we learn things from other people (if we choose the people careful enough of course) so other than group dynamics we benefit from it individually.
But non self-sufficient people change much more harder cause it almost becomes their "DNA". We can hardly change our character features. We can change behaviours, ideas etc. but character features are more concrete than others. One of the main reason it is not easy because most people dont/cant want to give the effort to change it. Parts of our character are so "our" that it is the essence of our "ego". Ego can be very defensive when the issue is about changing a part of it. So the situation is hopeless? No but as I said definitely not easy as your task you mentioned.
Of course only healing mechanism is awareness of human nature and our selves.